biometric voters’ register; FCFA 7.2 billion for the everyday running of the institution throughout the election period; FCFA 13.5 billion for the organization of local elections, i.e. municipal and regional elections; FCFA 13.7 billion for the first round of the parliamentary and presidential elections, and FCFA 9.7 billion for the second round. 124. Learning from the experiences of the previous elections held in 2016, Niger has initiated a process to reform the electoral code with the sole objective of ultimately holding elections in a peaceful environment in 2021. Thus, the National Political Dialogue Committee which brings together all the political parties got to work by setting up a committee in October 2018 to recommend a review of the disputed articles of the electoral code. 125. In its quest for consensus with the opposition parties, the Government accepted their proposals for the amendment of certain articles of the electoral code they thought were nonconsensual. These articles are as follows:  Article 12 on the composition of the INEC which will now be made up of 19 permanent members instead of 13 and one representative of each candidate standing for the presidential elections;  Article 14 on the composition of the officers of the INEC which will now be made up of 7 members instead of 4 to cater for representatives of the non-affiliated parties, and  Article 80 on the composition of polling stations to enable the competing political parties to make proposals to the INEC on the officers to man them. 126. At the moment, the only Article some opposition parties want reviewed but for which a consensus has not been reached is Article 18 which disqualifies from voting or standing for election any person who has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of one (1) year or more than a year for committing an offence for which he has not been pardoned. Therefore, it is actually the electoral code adopted by Law No. 2019-38 of 19 July 2019 which is still in force. 127. From 2017 to October 2019, thirty (30) mayors from various urban and rural communes were dismissed either because of serious offences like misappropriation of funds detected through inspections in particular or the poor management of their entities as a result of unproductive internal squabbles. Fourteen (14) other mayors were removed by their municipal councils through a vote of no confidence and seventeen (17) municipal councils were dissolved and replaced by special government management teams. All these measures were taken in accordance with Ordinance No. 2010-54 of 17 September 2010 on the General Local Authorities Code and its subsequent amendments. 128. In order to encourage the participation of women and to deal with the obstacles to participation in the country’s political and public life, the ministry responsible for the promotion of women fast-tracked a diagnostic study on the status of women’s leadership to enable it formulate a programme. During the 2016 general elections, several activities were carried out by both state agencies and civil society to improve the participation of women in public management. II. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS A. Right to Property: Article 14 1) Enactments 35

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