2011 Nigeria National Elections
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P
RESIDENTIAL
E
LECTION
D
AY
Leadership and Logistics of IRI's Short-Term Election Observation Mission
After months of speculation, postponements and national debate, INEC's final election timetable
allowed IRI to organize a 44-member team of short-term observers to witness the April 16
presidential election. Representatives from 14 countries comprised the IRI delegation: Bangladesh,
Canada, Estonia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mexico, Norway, Slovenia, Uganda, Ukraine, United
States and Sierra Leone. The delegation was co-chaired by Janez Janša (former prime minister of
Slovenia and current member of the Slovenian parliament) and Constance Berry Newman (IRI
board member, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, and former USAID
assistant administrator for Africa).
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IRI's short-term observerss also included: Judy Van Rest, IRI's
executive vice president; Dan Fisk, IRI's vice president for policy and strategic planning; Paul Fagan,
director of IRI's Africa division; and Mourtada Deme, resident country director for Nigeria. IRI
staff from Washington, DC, and various IRI field offices in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions
also served as observers and assisted in the mission.
The April 9 national assembly elections, though far from perfect, were broadly perceived as credible
and an improvement from previous elections. This positive climate set a precedent for the April 16
presidential election and provided IRI's short-term observers with a more defined context to focus
monitoring efforts. One of IRI's key expectations was that voter turnout would be higher than
national assembly elections given the importance of the presidential election. IRI's long-term
observers—along with Nigerian stakeholders and other international observers—had noted several
issues negatively affecting the April 9 elections. These issues were communicated, assessed and
presented to the short-term observer teams as issues of concern. They included: excessively long
lines and overcrowded polling stations; disorganized polling stations; underage voting; problems
with voters' registration cards; unprotected ballot casting areas; and, interference on the part of party
poll watchers.
IRI's short-term observers began arriving in Abuja on April 10—approximately four days before the
presidential election—to attend a comprehensive series of briefings before deploying to their
assigned locations on April 14.
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Once the entire delegation had arrived in Abuja, delegates were
briefed on the current political and electoral situation, Nigeria's voting system and possible
malpractices and procedural violations which could arise. The delegates also heard from
representatives from INEC, the inspector general of the police and various political parties,
including the ACN, CPC, PDP and other smaller parties.
IRI's 44 short-term observers deployed in 17 teams, while IRI's six teams of long-term observers
remained deployed separately. Counting both short- and long-term observers, IRI's overall effort
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Note: A complete list of IRI's delegates is included in the "IRI Preliminary Statement on Nigeria's National Elections"
made available in Appendix C at the end of this report.
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The abrupt postponement of the presidential election from April 9 to April 16—caused by the last-minute cancellation
and rescheduling of the April 2 National Assembly elections—required IRI to delay the arrival of its international
delegation by one week. Though logistically challenging, IRI was able to maintain, with few exceptions, the original
composition and deployment plans of its international delegation, which deployed throughout Nigeria on Thursday,
April 14, instead of Thursday, April 7, as originally planned.
