USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kennesaw University: Election Observation Report

News Release

Contact: Akanmu Adebayo, aadebeyo@kennesaw.edu, 470-578-6646
LAGOS, NIGERIA (March 31, 2015) — The Center for Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University, an official elections observer, issued a statement today congratulating the people and government of Nigeria and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the successful conduct of the 2015 presidential and national assembly elections.

These elections were conducted amidst an intense atmosphere," said Akanmu Adebayo, executive director of the Center, which is located just north of Atlanta, Ga., in the USA. "Weighed against this background, and in the light of our observations before and during the elections, we conclude that these presidential and national assembly elections were free, largely peaceful, fair, and credible."

This is historic for Nigeria, Adebayo noted. "This is the first time a change of government would be achieved democratically, and an opposition party would be voted into office. It is an indication of the growing maturity, and steady consolidation, of the Nigerian democracy."

The Center especially congratulated the voters for their "patience and peaceful conduct." "Most of them waited patiently in line for as many as 13 hours in order to exercise their franchise," Adebayo said. "We also give kudos to law enforcement authorities for their conduct, for ensuring that voting took place without threat or intimidation." INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, demonstrated courage under fire; the entire INEC leadership demonstrated impartiality and focus.

The Center for Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University was one of the international observers accredited by the INEC. Its observer team covered several states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

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Through spokesman Adebayo, the Center also congratulated the INEC, which it called "the election umpire," for three of several innovations: permanent voters' cards (PVC), which replaced the temporary voters' cards; card readers that promise to prevent and perhaps eliminate voters' fraud; and an arrangement with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to transport polling officials and materials to the polling places.

Even though the transportation arrangement had logistical problems, causing ad-hoc poll workers and voting materials to arrive late in many places, the Center applauded the effort to tackle one of the major problems that had bedeviled earlier elections in the country.

"Regretfully," said Adebayo, "we noted that these innovations had not been pre-tested in a real- life election — perhaps at a few of the off-cycle elections — before they were used in this high- stakes election."

In its evaluation, the Center concluded that altogether, most of the card readers worked. Where they did not work, the polling staff switched to manual accreditation once authorized, and voting was extended to Sunday to ensure those voters exercised their franchise.

The Center for Conflict Management's observer team found the confusion in Rivers State, and the sporadic acts of violence in Anambra, Bauchi, Enugu, Gombe, and Ekiti states "regrettable."

"We call on all Nigerians to maintain the peace and orderliness that had characterized the elections," said Adebayo. "We also call on parties, candidates, and all stakeholders to place the country above all other interests. As is with all elections, someone would win and others would lose. It is important that all parties continue to uphold the rule of law. We implore all Nigerians to avoid inflammatory speeches and violent confrontations over the results of the elections."

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The Center for Conflict Management is a unit of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kennesaw State University. The Center collaborates with the Master of Science in Conflict Management (MSCM) and the Ph.D. in International Conflict Management (INCM) programs. It works locally and globally to promote peace and conflict resolution; conducts research into peace and conflict issues; provides training in conflict management skills; attracts and implements grant projects, contracts, and consultancies; and disseminates findings and educates the public through conferences, symposia and workshops. 

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Akanmu G. Adebayo, Ph.D.
Professor of History & Director, Center for Conflict Management

CENTER FOR CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

PRELIMINARY REPORT OF OBSERVATION OF THE 2015 NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION

Executive Summary

Nigeria's much anticipated elections took place on Saturday, March 28, 2015, with voting extended to Sunday, March 29, in a few states and polling units. These elections were conducted amidst high tension, under the long shadow of an offensive in the war against the Boko Haram insurgency, and after having been delayed for six weeks to ensure the safety and security.

It is now official. At about 10 p.m. March 31, the last result from Bornu State was presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). It confirmed what has become known for some time that evening: General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) has been elected president, winning against the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan by a wide margin of over 2 million votes.

The Center for Conflict Management (CCM) observed these elections in six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. These are Bauchi, Benue, Edo, Kano, Lagos, and Oyo states. We observed that there were logistical issues, delays in the arrival of INEC's ad-hoc polling staff and election materials at the polling units, some technical failure with the card readers, and delay in communication of directives from INEC when polling staff had problems or needed clarifications. There were sporadic acts of violence in several states. In Benue State, for example, three INEC offices were set ablaze.

On the other hand, the CCM team also observed that the voters turned out in large numbers. They conducted themselves peacefully. They formed lines simply by queuing up or, assisted by community leaders, numbers were assigned to voters as they arrived at the polling units. Voters waited patiently in line for hours, some as many as thirteen hours, to exercise their franchise.

The election umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), introduced many new features that were largely successful, especially the use of the card readers to authenticate voters and prevent fraud. Law enforcement authorities kept the peace diligently and mostly politely.

For these reasons, and those further explained below, the Center for Conflict Management assesses the 2015 presidential and national assembly elections to be largely peaceful, free, fair, and credible; the results of the elections as released by INEC are acceptable

Political Parties

Fourteen political parties contested various posts in the 2015 elections. They are, alphabetically, the Accord Alliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), African Peoples Alliance (APA), All Progressives Congress (APC), Alliance for Democracy (AD) Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Citizens Popular Party (CPP) Hope Party (HP), KOWA Party (KP) National Conscience Party (NCP), People's Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), United Democratic Party (UDP), United Progressive Party (UPP). Not all parties contested all seats in all states.

Of these political parties, two parties were the strongest. These were the PDP, the incumbent party that has controlled the national government since 1999; and the APC, the party formed as a coalition of major opposition parties. The main candidates were Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo as PDP's presidential and running mate respectively; and Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo as APC's presidential and running mate respectively. All presidential candidates and their running mates are listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Political Parties and Presidential Candidates

Party

Accord Alliance
African Democratic Congress
African Peoples Alliance
All Progressives Congress
Alliance for Democracy
Allied Congress Party of Nigeria ACPN

Short Candidate for President Running Mate

Citizens Popular Party Hope Party
KOWA Party
National Conscience Party People's Democratic Party Peoples Party of Nigeria United Democratic Party United Progressive Party

Ganiyu Galadima CPP Sam Eke

HOPE Ambrose Albert Owuru KOWA Comfort Oluremi Sonaiya

NCP Martin Onovo PDP Goodluck Jonathan PPN Allagoa Chinedu

UDP Godson Okoye UPP Chekwas Okorie

AA ADC APA APC AD

Tunde Anifowose-Kelan Mani Ahmad
Adebayo Musa Ayeni Muhammadu Buhari Rufus Salawu

Ishaka Ofemile
Obianuju Murphy-Uzohue Anthony Ologbosere Yemi Osinbajo
Akuchie Cliff
Ojengbede Farida Hassana Hassan
Haruna Shaba
Seidu Bobboi
Ibrahim Mohammed Namadi Sambo Arabamhen Mary
Haruna Adamu
Bello Umar

Election Day
According to INEC, the voting procedure is as follows:

STAGE 1: ACCREDITATION
Step 1: Go to the Polling Unit you were registered with your voter registration

card ad join the queue
Step 2: Present your Voter registration card to the INEC official and ensure that

your name is the register
Step 3: Your finger would be marked with ink to show that you have been

accredited.

STAGE 2: VOTING
Step 1: Join the queue with the intention of casting your vote
Step 2: When it gets to your turn, ensure your name is ticked in the voter register Step 3: You would be given a ballot paper listing out the political parties
Step 4: Enter the booth and select your preferred candidate
Step 5: Place your ballot paper in the ballot box

The above represents the expectation on election day and, to a large extent, this was what happened. Voters arrived at their designated polling units with high expectation. They queued up, or some community elders organized them by assigning numbers upon arrival. Polling materials were distributed at specific locations in each Local Government, which often served as the LG collation center. Polling staff and materials were then transported to the polling units, with security provided by men and women of the Nigerian security forces in uniform and embedded in the civilian population. In many states, the Army and Air Force patrolled the major roads, assisted by Customs officers, Civil Defense Corps, Immigration, Prison, and Federal Road Safety. In many polling units, polling staff arrived on time and accreditation commenced promptly. At other places, staff and materials arrived late. The card reader was a success in most polling units. In a minority of polling units, the card reader failed to accredit the voter—the most embarrassing being President Goodluck Jonathan and the first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan.

Two major challenges at this election had to do with the voting process and the card reader. The process was designed to be complicated in order to prevent fraud. Voters did not get to vote immediately after accreditation. All voters were first accredited before moving to the voting stage. That meant voters spent the entire day at the polling unit. The second issues was the use of electronic process to accredit voters. Again, while this was a novelty, it delayed the entire process even when it worked, and it failed in a minimal number of cases.

Altogether, the voting process proceeded as designed. After all the votes were cast the sorting and counting commenced. It was at this stage that two major ironies of the process became apparent. First, while voter turnout seemed large, the number of accredited voters was much less than the number of registered voters in the precincts. Second, the number of rejected ballots was

unexpectedly large. The most common reasons for rejection were blank ballots (meaning the voter did not mark anywhere), and ink appearing against more than one candidate's "box" on the ballot. There is a need for voter education.

Security was provided by men and women of the Nigerian security services, including the military forces, police, and civil defense forces. In every major city, every major intersection had security forces, keeping order and ensuring restriction of unnecessary movement. The streets in Ibadan were so deserted that youths played football (soccer) on large sections of the roads, even on a section of the always busy Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Specific Observations in Brief

The observations listed below were made by the CCM team of observers. They are listed in no particular order. The questions they raise will be addressed in greater details in the full/final report.

•   Materials and personnel arrived at the polling units late.

•   Card readers worked slowly and caused delay. One wonders whether the process can be

  quicker and merged with the actual voting? This means there would be one queue and a voter can complete the accreditation and proceed to vote immediately—it saves time and reduces voter apathy.

•   Training is crucial and INEC knows this. Could more stakeholders be involved in voter education? Perhaps, too, INEC could spend more time in training of ad-hoc staff, and open the opportunity to willing lecturers and non-teaching staff of universities and polytechnics.

•   The number of parties are probably too many. Some parties ought to be flushed out to give more chances of understanding the election process than the current numbers. This will increase ballot paper clarity and make it easy for illiterate voters to find and select their candidate or party

•   In a few polling units in Edo State, politicians were observed moving around and distributing money.

•   Despite the best efforts of INEC and security agencies, there were still reported cases of election irregularities. In Benue State, our team observed one case of ballot snatching in Abinsi, Guma LGA, and another similar case in Awajir (Konshisha LGA). In addition, there was an instance of ballot thumb-printing by party agents in Adoka (Otukpo) and in Ado LGA in Benue State.

•   Threats and intimidation that had characterized the pre-election period dissipated on election day and this allowed for a free and fair election in most places. However, there were reports of attacks, shootings, and bomb explosions in a number of high tension states. These were localized and did not affect the overall integrity of the votes, especially in states unaffected by the violence.

•   Security was a major undertaking, especially in the states under pressure from Boko Haram insurgency. In Bauchi, for instance, voters were not allowed access into some of the polling

units until they were checked with metal detector. The polling units were demarcated with

rocks in order to ensure the safety of the people.

•   INEC was bold to use the card readers. Challenges with card readers might be attributed to

  operators' errors, pointing to a lack of adequate training of the staff. Nevertheless, the performance of these ad-hoc polling staff was commendable, given that none had handled these machines until the day of election.

•   Communication was a major problem. In the future, INEC should consider a safe, secure means of communication between field officers and supervisors to ensure a seamless communication. That's another technology but it eliminates poor communication based on publicly available networks with major hiccups.

•   The elections utilized a lot of personnel, totaling perhaps 1 million nationwide. These men and women did not have the opportunity to vote, as there were no provisions for early voting. In the future, arrangements should be made to address this automatic disenfranchisement. The same observation applies to Diaspora voting. The government of Nigeria and INEC should consider the question of Diaspora voting urgently and seriously.

•   Folding the ballot papers before placing them into the ballot box increased the chance of spreading ink into other parts of the ballot paper. This calls for faster drying ink.

•   Because of several delays, and because voting went late into the night, provision should have been made to have power generators by the polling units and collation centers. We observed many polling units and collation centers using light from officials' mobile phones to sort, count, and collate.

  Epilogue
  This preliminary report mostly covers election-day observations. The full report will include analysis of the pre-election and post-election observations.

  Akanmu G. Adebayo, Ph.D. April 1, 2015
  Email: aadebayo@kennesaw.edu
  Phone: +1-470-578-6646 In Nigeria +234-813-677-7191