IRI Issues Preliminary Findings on Elections

February 27, 1999

In a historic vote Saturday, Nigerians chose a transition from military rule to civilian government. IRI believes that, despite troubles plaguing the election, yesterday’s vote was an important step in the transition process.

IRI noted a number of positive aspects to the election:

Nigerians who chose to vote should be praised for their courage and faith in a democratic future for their country.
The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) mounted a successful voter education campaign on last-minute changes regarding the Alliance for Democracy’s place on the ballot. INEC is also to be praised for staffing and equipping more than 110,000 polling units in the short time available. The helpful attitude of INEC’s local administrators, many of them women and teachers, towards voters and international observers also deserves praise.
Political parties participated in the electoral process, and more tolerance than might have been expected existed between them.
The current government, led by General Abubakar, initiated Nigeria’s democratic transition, including a freer press. Nigeria’s military remained in the barracks and overtly outside the political process.

Nigeria’s path to democracy must include respect for human rights, the rule of law, and transparent and responsive government. Absent such developments, Nigerians will quickly grow cynical about this weekend’s first steps towards democracy. One of the essential features of a democratic system must be elections in which the people have confidence. A major goal of the new government must be to break the patterns of the past. Among the issues that must be addressed are serious irregularities and problems that have occurred in the election process thus far:

Five of the ten IRI teams saw stuffed ballots. One team saw ballots being stuffed into a ballot box, and the rest saw stuffed ballots during the initial counting process. Fraud was not obvious at the rest of the many polling stations IRI visited before counting began, and none was evident to a Lagos-based IRI team that examined post-counting ward-level results. The new government should hold accountable those responsible for transgressions of the election law.
A lack of secrecy existed in the marking and casting of ballots, enabling voter intimidation. Inexpensive ballot booths and opaque ballot boxes (to replace clear boxes intended to discourage ballot stuffing) that are used in other countries should be introduced into Nigeria’s electoral system.
The well-intentioned but unusual and impractical split accreditation and voting processes should be changed.
Voter turnout was disappointing, given the historic nature of this election.
Training of local INEC officials steadily improved during the three elections beginning in December, but still proved inadequate by Saturday’s balloting.
INEC does not include polling station results in final election reporting. In other countries, such information has proven a deterrent to fraud at levels higher than the local stations.
Political parties need to practice a greater degree of internal democracy, and the resulting leaders need to exert greater influence to discourage corruption of the election process, if they are to fulfill their proper role in Nigerian society.

IRI looks forward to working with Nigeria’s new civilian rulers to help institute these necessary improvements.

Background

The International Republican Institute arrived in Nigeria last September to observe and support the transfer of Nigeria’s government to elected authorities at the local, state, and national levels.

IRI observed the elections on December 5, January 9 and February 20 and 27. IRI also produced a Polling Agent Handbook for the elections and held 64 training seminars in 26 states between November 30 and February 16. Approximately 300,000 of the IRI handbooks were distributed throughout the country to the three contesting parties.

For the February 27 election, IRI deployed a bipartisan team of 42 observers led by U.S. Congressman Ed Royce (Republican-California), General Colin Powell, U.S. Congressman Donald Payne (Democrat-New Jersey), and former Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker. Prior to election day, the accredited IRI delegates met with officials from the INEC, political parties, the United States Embassy, and visited local government councils. IRI’s 10 teams observed the election in Lagos, Ogun, Nassarawa, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Jigawa, Dutse, Rivers and Niger states.

IRI evaluates elections based on four criteria. This preliminary statement involves IRI observations of the first two -- events leading up to the election and election day. The third stage -- the tabulation of ballots -- has just begun. IRI reserves the right to modify this statement as circumstances surrounding these processes become clearer. IRI will issue a final report to coincide with the fourth step in Nigeria’s transition from military to civilian rule, the inauguration of a new government at the end of May 1999.

Dedicated to advancing democracy worldwide, IRI operates in more than two dozen countries, and has observed almost 70 elections in over 30 countries.

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A nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing democracy worldwide