2011 Nigeria National Elections
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Arturo Sanchez Gutierrez, advisor to the Federal Electoral Institute in Mexico;
Jake Hale, founder of CS Advisors, LLC;
Maureen Harrington, former Vice President for Policy and International Relations at the
Millennium Challenge Corporation;
Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, Chairman of the National Election Observation Council
(JANIPOP) in Bangladesh;
Darren Kew, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution and the Executive Director of the
Center for Peace, Democracy and Development at the University of Massachusetts at
Boston McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies;
Ann Liebschutz, Executive Director of the U.S. – Israel Science and Technology
Foundation;
Beate Bergsholm Lindgard, Regional Campaign Manager and Head of Office of the
Conservative Party in Norway;
Robert B. Lloyd, Associate Professor of International Relations at Pepperdine University;
Djingarey Maiga, Executive Director of
Femmes et Droits Humains
in Mali;
Peter Manu, Vice Chairman of the International Democratic Union and National Chairman
of the New Patriotic Party in Ghana;
Ray McNally, President and Creative Director at McNally Temple Associates, Inc.;
Victoria Middleton, Chief of Staff to U.S. Congressman Duncan D. Hunter (CA);
John Morlu, Auditor General of the General Auditing Commission in Liberia;
Maimuna Abdalla Mwidau, Chairperson of the League of Muslim Women of Kenya;
Mart Nutt, member of the Estonian Parliament;
J. Peter Pham, Director of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center at the Atlantic Council;
Christiana Thorpe, Chief of the Sierra Leone National Electoral Commission; and
Christopher Tuttle, Director of the Washington Program at the Council on Foreign
Relations.
IRI staff also served as observers and assisted in the mission. They were led by Judy Van Rest,
Executive Vice President; Dan Fisk, Vice President for Policy and Strategic Planning; Paul Fagan,
Regional Director of IRI's Africa division based in Washington, DC; and Mourtada Deme, Country
Director of IRI's Nigeria program based in Abuja.
Upon arrival in Nigeria, delegates were briefed by representatives from the U.S. Embassy, INEC,
international and Nigerian nongovernmental organizations and political parties. They were also
briefed on Nigerian election law and the rights and responsibilities of international observers.
IRI also fielded a pre-election assessment mission earlier this year, which was led by His Excellency
John Kufuor, former President of Ghana, and deployed 12 long-term observers to Nigeria's six geo-
political regions. IRI's long-term observers have been in Nigeria since March monitoring the
campaigns and preparations for the national assembly elections, the presidential election and the
gubernatorial, state assembly and local government elections. They also participated in observing
the April 16 presidential election.
IRI has monitored more than 135 elections in more than 40 countries, including Nigeria's 1999,
2003 and 2007 elections.
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