Foreign observers praise election conduct

Saturday’s National Assembly election has drawn rare praise from major international observer delegations including the Commonwealth and the American-led National Democratic Institute. Ahead of the presidential and governorship election, both teams yesterday in Abuja separately issued formal preliminary verdicts on the April 9 parliamentary poll now acclaimed as one of Nigeria’s most peaceful and well conducted. 234Next.com Taiye Agbaje and Ini Ekott, 12.04.11 “In our experience, the National Assembly elections generally took place in a peaceful and orderly manner. The required staff and stakeholders were present and the various stages of the electoral process on polling day broadly proceeded smoothly and transparently,” read a statement by Festus Mogae, former president of Botswana, who leads the Commonwealth mission. The American NDI said in a statement, “In contrast to past elections in Nigeria, last Saturday’s National Assembly polls provided a real opportunity for citizens to exercise their right to vote.” The NDI team comprised Joe Clark, former prime minister of Canada; Antonio Monteiro, former president of Cape Verde; Mahamane Ousmane, former president of Niger; Jon Corzine, former US senator, Marietje Schaake, Dutch member of the European Union, Natasha Despoja, former Australian Senator and Kenneth Wollack, NDI president. While both teams hailed Nigerians for their conduct while condemning the relatively small cases of violence, they singled out the Independent National Electoral Commission for commendation. Speaking in Abuja at a press conference, Mr. Wollack said although INEC has achieved a milestone in the conduct of the elections, there were a few weaknesses. He noted that increased citizens awareness, public confidence in the leadership of election authorities and greater engagement by political parties and civil societies have provided the basis for a break from previous failed elections, adding that the commission justified the initial setback with the April 2 postponement. “Such problems were simply ignored in the 2007 elections. At the same time, the failure to hold polls as originally scheduled caused widespread disappointment, which in part may explain what appears to be a lower voter turnout on April 9,” the institute said. Pointing out the problems observed by the institute, the delegations said it discovered instances of significantly late openings of polls, inaccurate, incomplete or missing voter lists, inconsistent application of procedures, underage voting; overcrowding of polling sites, lack of ballot secrecy, failure to post results at polling sites and missing essential materials. However, the Commonwealth said it did not believe the “several logistical and procedural deficiencies” it noticed on Saturday across the country, called into question the credibility of the process. Mr. Mogae said the concerns would be made known to the electoral body at a meeting before presidential elections. The NDI, recommended that the commission should, as a matter of urgency, improve logistics plans to ensure on-time opening of polls, up-date the voter register along with instructions on its use to polling officials before the April 16 presidential poll to reduce instances of voter disenfranchisement, enforce vigorously the law against underage voting, improve the security and management of collation centres, take immediate steps to prosecute those responsible for election violence and fraud, among others. The NDI’s delegation had 50 observers from 23 countries, who were deployed throughout the country on election day, and they observed more than 230 polling units in 77 local government areas across 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory within the six geopolitical zones.