Nigerian Democracy
Words by Olufunke Baruwa | Photos courtesy of YIAGA
E
lections observers agree that
from civic engagement to
domestic observation and conflict
mitigation, Civil Society Organizations
(CSOs) supported by USAID proved to
be a solid pillar upon whom Nigerians
could rely as credible voices to hold
government accountable to democratic
promises and principles during the
2019 general elections.
As the election process unfolded, these
groups joined together to mobilize
citizens to go to the polls, advocate
for adherence to democratic concepts
and ideas, and candidly report on the
process through real-time observations
shared on social media and other
platforms.
Several innovative approaches to
election observation and reporting by
CSOs defined the 2019 elections. These
included: scaling up of the ‘Situation
Room’ to provide pre-election analysis
and to track the elections in real time
as they evolved; establishment of
a ‘Gender and Election Watch’ and
a ‘Content Aggregation System for
Elections’ that compiled real-time data
during the polls; and forming a loose
coalition that deployed thousands of
citizen observers, and collected and
analyzed all kinds of information on
actions of voters, security personnel,
election officials and candidates.
Cynthia Mbamalu (right), YIAGA
Africa Program Manager, explains
the Watching the Vote Data Center
results screen to Former President
of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
(center), leader of the ECOWAS
Election Observation Mission to
Nigeria, with YIAGA Board Member
Aisha Abdullahi (left).
All told, CSOs brought together the
highest number of domestic election
monitors Nigeria has ever seen since
the country’s return to civilian rule two
decades ago. The Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) accredited
120 domestic CSOs and 36 foreign
observer groups, who fielded more than
7,300 observers overall.
Through long-time partners such as the
International Foundation for Electoral
Systems (IFES), the International
Republican Institute (IRI) and National
Democratic Institute (NDI), USAID
supported leading civil society NGOs,
among them YIAGA Africa, which
conducted a critical national Parallel
Vote Tabulation (PVT) to avouch the
legitimacy of the official election results
for the public.
Ahead of Election Day, YIAGA Africa
deployed more than 3,000 observers
to all of the country’s 774 local
government areas, and conducted
the crucial PVT during both the
presidential and National Assembly
elections. Well before the polls, YIAGA
Africa fielded long-term observers to
assess the pre-election environment
and anticipate issues likely to arise on
Election Day and afterwards.
To collate the PVT, observer teams
fed random samples of more than
1,500 polling units across every local
government area into its ‘Watching the
Vote’ National Data Center for a “quick
count” tabulation. The international
gold standard for citizen observation
of elections, the quick count
independently measured the quality of
the Election Day processes and results,
validating INEC’s announced results.
“Without USAID support, these
initiatives wouldn’t have achieved the
goal of building a national movement,”
said Cynthia Mbamalu, program
manager for YIAGA Africa. “Citizens
had a better understanding of the
elections and the electoral process than
ever before.”
Ahead of the elections,
CROSSROADS | April/May 2019
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