NIAMEY, Dec. 14, (Xinhua/GNA) – Nigeriens came out on Sunday to elect, in peace and serenity, their municipal and regional councilors for the next five years.
Voting began at around 8:00 a.m. in the majority of localities in the country. Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, after completing his vote, called on all voters to come out “massively to perform their duty in peace”.
He took the opportunity to salute and congratulate the CENI (Independent National Electoral Commission) for having succeeded in the organization of these elections, and also the political parties for having led a peaceful electoral campaign. He appealed to the CENI and all other institutions responsible for organizing the elections “to ensure the transparency and sincerity of all elections”.
The security forces are deployed on all the sites of the voting operations so that these polls take place in good security conditions.
Polling stations will close the same day at 7:00 p.m. in all regions of Niger, except Diffa and Bilma department, in the region of Agadez, where the closing is scheduled for 6:00 p.m., because of their geographical position, according to the CENI.
These polls took place in 26,000 polling stations, across the eight regions, 266 municipalities and the 15 municipal districts in the country, for 4,000 seats to be filled. Councilors are elected for a renewable five-year term, which takes effect from the date of proclamation of the final results.
GNA