Ghana has presented one hundred thousand units of election thumbprint pads to Niger to support that country’s second round of the Presidential election scheduled for Sunday, February 21.
Ghana’s Ambassador to Niger, Jonathan Magnusen, made the presentation to Niger’s Independent National Electoral Commission, in Niamey on behalf of President Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission of Ghana.
He described the donation as another milestone in the long history of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance between the two countries for more than a century.
Ambassador Magnusen expressed Ghana’s satisfaction with the democratic path embarked upon by the people of Niger and the outcome of their December 2020 polls, which has been hailed by civil society groups, election observers, and the international community to be generally free, fair, and credible.
He recalled the pioneering efforts of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his Nigerien counterpart, Hamani Diori, to unite the African continent with a common purpose of African emancipation, human, social and economic development regardless of the cultural, and linguistic differences as well as the artificial borders that separate the peoples of the continent.
The President of the Niger Independent National Electoral Commission, Issaka Souna, thanked Ghana for the prompt assistance to facilitate the second round of Niger’s Presidential election.
He said the request to Ghana for assistance was due to pressure of time due to the constitutional time limit for the organisation of the second-round presidential elections, as well as delays in international trade and supply as a result of Covid-19 which made it impossible to receive replenishment in time for the election.
