ECOWAS observer team arrives Nigeria ahead of Presidential Election

ECOWAS observer team arrives Nigeria ahead of Presidential Election

The 300 strong ECOWAS observer team to monitor the Saturday, April 16 Presidential election in Nigeria have been deployed to states to observe the election.

The former President of the Interim Government of Liberia, Professor Amos Sawyer is leading the ECOWAS team.

The team

Members of the Mission include ECOWAS Ambassadors, representatives of the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, representatives of civil society organizations, the ECOWAS Parliament and Court of Justice, electoral experts as well as representatives of electoral commissions from the 15 Member States.

Professor Sawyer would be joined on Election Day by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador James victor Gbeho, who was part of the ECOWAS Observer Mission to the 2008 general elections in Ghana. He led the organization’s pre-election fact-finding mission to Ghana in October 2008.

ECOWAS commitments

Under its Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, ECOWAS is required to dispatch fact-finding and observer missions to Member States conducting presidential elections as part of its determination to ensure democratic convergence across West Africa.

These missions also enable ECOWAS to determine appropriate assistance to be rendered to such States in order to ensure the conduct of free, transparent and credible elections in the region.

PR/Qasim