The Role of the International Observer in Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria: A Case of 2015 General Elections (Published)
The paper is about the General Elections in Nigeria for 2015. Its conduct and general outcomes. It elucidates on its preparation, campaign promises, party manifestoes of the two major contesting parties — the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). Information from the electoral umpire — the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) puts the number of registered voters at 68.8 million, but only 28.2 million were actually accredited during the elections, and exercised their franchise. The INEC took democratic consolidation a notch further by the introduction of new technologies like the voter’s card reading machines employed to authenticate the bio-data of the bearer; replacement of temporary voter’s card with the permanent voter’s card. By all indices, the election was adjudged free and fair — this much was attested to by international election monitoring teams that monitored the exercised and confirmed that despite few glitches, the exercise met with international best practice.
Keywords: Election and Democracy Consolidation, International Observer, Nigeria, Role