Niger Republic Polls: CENI urged to adopt new technology

Two days after the Presidential and House of Assembly elections in Niger Republic, the results are yet to be announced, leaving people in suspense of who will emerge victorious.

Daily Trust reports that a total of 30 candidates slugged it out in the presidential race that took place on Sunday, including Mohamed Bazoum, the favourite candidate of the incumbent president, Mahamadou Issoufu.

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Experts in the Niger Republic have advised that the process of declaring the result should be reviewed to avoid being suspicious of rigging and manipulations.

The delay is due to the fact that Niger Republic has a large landmass and some places are difficult to access, thereby causing delay in the collation of the result, which may take almost one to five days to declare.

Speaking to BBC Hausa, a political analyst from the University of Zinder, Dr. Dikko Abdurrahman, said the delay posed a great challenge to the credibility of the election as it may lead to the notion of rigging by the people of the country.

He urged CENI to adopt the system of new technology and reduce the days within which the result is declared.

“The delay in announcing results in Niger Republic is related to the wide land and lack of good roads.

“So, there is a need for adequate money to employ new technology, not always using airplanes or vehicles in the process of election.

“Now that people are waiting and nothing has come from CENI, it will lead people to suspect that there would be manipulation of figures and rigging attempts.

“Since now there are very few places that have no internet service in Niger, then I think CENI can use the various new technology advancements to make it easier and quicker to collate the results.

“They can use e-mail, whatsApp and other related applications.

“This will help in getting the results earlier and will prevent going places that are dangerous like Agadez, Dikwa and so on,” he advised.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, CENI, has said that the result will be declared after five days from conduct of the election.

Vice president of CENI told BBC Hausa that the collation is in process and that as at Monday, they have declared results of 23 out of the 276 wards in the country, adding that they are expected to round off between Tuesday and Wednesday.