Politics

Independent candidate says detected irregularities taint elections results

“Following the irregularities that occurred on the polling day, It would be better if the Independent National Electoral Commission recognized it during the presentation of the provisional results,” said Dieudonné Nahimana, who participated in the presidential election of 20 May, 2020 as an independent candidate at a news conference held on 29 May.

Dieudonné Nahimana, who participated in the presidential election of 20 May as an independent candidate

He says he has deployed more than 6,000 observers to monitor the electoral process. Nahimana indicates that these observers have detected several serious irregularities that taint the election results.

According to Nahimana, some of his observers were refused to monitor the voting process while the others were asked to sign the minutes before or during the voting process. “In some places, administrative, security and judicial authorities got involved in the voting procedure,” deplores Nahimana adding that they also influenced the voters.

According to Nahimana, many observers were denied the right to observe the counting of votes whole CENI members forced them to sign the minutes when they had not observed the counting.

“In several areas across the country, the counting operations were interrupted to resume several hours later and often in secret,” said Nahimana.
Nahimana also regrets that the election results were not officially published as required by the law. He believes that these elections were not 100% free, credible and transparent.