"[9][10] On 12 June 2009, the Constitutional Court ruled against Tandja's referendum proposal, following a non-binding advisement to the President the month before.

By law, Nigerien electoral officials must send out voter cards two months prior to an election.

[17] Upon the final ruling by the Constitutional Court, Tandja declared that he had assumed "special powers" as the "independence of the nation was threatened".

As vote counting took place on 5 August, CENI President Moumouni Hamidou said that voter turnout had varied "between 40 and 90 percent" across the country, with the higher figures found in rural areas.

[20] Large signs from President Tandja were posted in Niamey on 6 August, reading "For your fresh show of confidence, all of you: thank you".

[22][23] Speaking on 8 August, opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou vowed to "resist and fight against this coup d'etat enacted by President Tandja and against his aim of installing a dictatorship in our country".

[24] After calling for protests, Marou Amadou was arrested on 10 August; he was quickly released on the orders of a judge in Niamey, but according to a member of his non-governmental organization, the United Front for the Protection of Democracy (FUSAD), he was then "kidnapped ... by members of the Republican Guard at the prison in Niamey as he was trying to complete formalities for his freedom from prison".

[25] The Constitutional Court's decision confirming the referendum results was announced on 14 August 2009, thereby legally validating the outcome.