Local officials committed electoral fraud because opposition parties lacked poll observers.

Evidence

Some local administrators, such as district commissioners and regional governors, ignored the president’s warnings, the government’s instructions, and the electoral laws by turning significant number of polling stations into scandalous embarrassments. This fiasco took place in large measure because of the absence of opposition-party representatives at most polling stations. Although these parties were required to have observers in each station, the opposition’s national reach was limited, and therefore they left many of the stations unattended. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 668

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Electoral irregularities can stem from incompetence rather than manipulation — Johan Brosché and Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund, Electoral violence and the legacy of…, 85