The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is set to deploy an 80-observer mission to Niger for the up-coming presidential runoff election on 21st February 2021 in accordance with the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. The mission will be led by H.E. Namadi Sambo, former Vice-President of Nigeria.
The provisions of its Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance stipulates that the ECOWAS shall provide support to the Member States during elections, and that the regional organization will deploy an election mission to observe the presidential runoff election.
The main objective of the mission will be to ensure the smooth running of the electoral process for a free, transparent, and credible election in Niger. The 80 observers will be drawn from the ECOWAS Member States except Niger, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, and the Community Parliament.
Observers will be deployed to all eight regions of the country to observe, monitor, and comment on all electoral processes. The observation will focus on the regularity, transparency, fairness, and smooth conduct of the presidential runoff election.
The observation mission of the presidential runoff election in Niger will be supported on the ground by a technical support team from the ECOWAS Commission.
At the end of the election, after a debriefing session, the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission will express its opinion and make recommendations, if necessary, to the various stakeholders in the electoral process.
This will be done through a preliminary statement to be read by the head of the mission at a press conference scheduled to be held in Niamey, the capital of Niger.
On 21st February 2021, the Republic of Niger will hold its presidential runoff election. This follows the declaration of the final results of the first round of the presidential election of 27th December 2020 by the Constitutional Court, the nation’s top court in charge of election matters, on Friday, January 29 2021. In the runoff election, the candidate of the ruling party, Mr Bazoum Mohamed of the PNDS Tarayya will run against the former President Mr Mahamane Ousmane of the RDR Tchanji.
In Niger, the President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term. The President is limited to two 5-year terms. The 171 members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods; 158 members are elected from eight multi-member constituencies based on the seven regions and Niamey by party-list proportional representation. A further eight seats are reserved for national minorities and five seats for Nigeriens living abroad, all elected from single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting.
The ECOWAS in a press release, calls on the two candidates as well as their supporters to ensure that the election is transparent and takes place in peace, tranquillity, and national cohesion.
In 2020, ECOWAS observes elections in six Member States. The observer mission of the ECOWAS participated in the observation of presidential elections in Togo (22 February), Guinea (October 18), Côte d’Ivoire (October 31), Burkina Faso (November 22), Ghana (December 7), and Niger (December 27 for the 1st round).
The observers for the 2020 elections reported several instances of dysfunctional electoral processes in most of the countries. The ECOWAS therefore has served a notice to the parliament for a review of some of its observer activities.
ECOWAS to deploy 80 observers to Niger for presidential runoff elections
