Spotlight: Five African countries vote in peaceful polls

Five African countries, Benin, Niger, Republic of Congo, Cape Verde, Senegal as well as Tanzania's semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, held elections on Sunday, which were generally considered peaceful.

Whereas Benin and Niger held presidential runoff poll, the Republic of Congo was holding the first round of the presidential elections.

On the other hand, Senegal was holding a constitutional referendum to allow citizens determine whether to maintain the current seven-year presidential term mandate or reduce it to five years.

At the same time, Cape Verde held legislative elections to fill up 72 seats in the National Assembly.

And in Zanzibar, voters went back to the polls after the results of presidential and parliamentary elections held on Oct. 25, 2015 were nullified by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission over vote rigging allegations.

In a statement released Sunday in Addis Ababa, African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma called for smooth, peaceful, transparent and credible polls in the six AU member states.

Benin

Voting in Benin's presidential run-off poll began at 7 a.m. local time in most polling stations across the country.

The elections were being contested between current Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou and businessman Patrice Talon, who respectively came first and second during the first round of the presidential elections on March 6.

About 4.7 million people were expected to cast their votes in 13,664 voting stations to choose the successor of outgoing President Boni Yayi, whose second term ends on April 6.

Election observers told Xinhua the elections were generally peaceful, with voters in many stations awaiting in long queues to accomplish their civic duty.

The process was conducted under the supervision of observers from regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), International Organization of Francophone (OIF), and Beninese civil society organizations.

Hours after voting operations ended Sunday, Benin Institute of Research (IBS) published early trends that showed Talon in leading position, with 64.8 percent of votes cast against 35.2 percent for Zinsou.

Zinsou also acknowledged "obvious victory" of Talon who is way ahead in early trends the runoff polls.

"I called Patrice Talon this evening to congratulate him on his victory and wish him well", candidate Zinsou wrote on his Facebook page late Sunday.

Niger

Nigeriens voted peacefully on Sunday in the country's first ever presidential runoff poll to elect their new president between incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou and his main challenger Hama Amadou.

Over 7.5 million Nigeriens were expected to cast their votes in 25,700 polling stations distributed in the country's eight regions.

According to election observers, both national and international, the turnout during the runoff poll was much lower compared to that in the first round of the presidential poll that was held on Feb. 21.

The low turnout could be attributed to the boycott call by the opposition alliance, COPA 2016, whose candidate Amadou, in prison for the last four months, was last week evacuated to Paris for health reasons.

In the run-up to the elections, COPA 2016 threatened to boycott the elections and "not to recognize the winner" due to lack of fairness between the two competing candidates.

However, the voting process went on without any major incident being reported, with sufficient electoral materials distributed to polling stations on time.

Immediately after casting his vote in the capital Niamey, Issoufou urged his fellow citizens to remain united and to support the president who will be chosen.

Issoufou, with a score of 48.4 percent in the first round and support of over 50 political parties, is widely expected to win the presidential runoff poll.

Voting closed in most parts of the country at 7:00 p.m. Sunday and vote counting began immediately.

The National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) is expected to start releasing provisional results of the elections immediately they are received at its headquarters at the Niamey Conference Center.

Republic of Congo

Over 2.1 million voters in the Republic of Congo headed to polls on Sunday for the first round of the presidential elections to choose their future president among nine candidates, who include incumbent President Denis Sassou N'Guesso.

The voters turned up in 5,365 polling stations that were created by the electoral administrators in the country's 12 departments. And the elections were also supervised by 360 national observers and over 600 international observers.

Speaking after casting his vote in the capital Brazzaville, President N'Guesso hailed the conduct of Sunday's polls as well as the campaigns that preceded the elections.

"No incident was reported. The candidates freely moved across the country. There is calm and people are voting peacefully," he said.

Former Djibouti Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita, who is leading the AU observer mission, also hailed the good conduct of the elections.

Prior to the elections, Interior and Decentralization Minister Raymond Zephirin Mboulou issued a statement, urging the Congolese population to freely exercise their civic duty by choosing the candidate of their choice.

He further ordered the closure of Republic of Congo's land, water and air borders throughout Sunday when voting was being conducted.

At the same time, the government banned movement of vehicles, public protests, carrying of any weapon without authorization, as well as opening of entertainment joints and shops on Sunday.

It further suspended all medium of communication on Sunday and Monday. Enditem