UNDP reels out score card on Nigeria’s 2011 elections

UNDP reels out score card on Nigeria’s 2011 elections

The United Nations’ Development Programme (UNDP) and its partners, under the auspices of Democratic Governance for Development (DGD) project have reeled out its score card on the success of 2011 general elections in Nigeria.

According to a statement from the UNDP communication desk, the support to the electoral process was coordinated under the Democratic Governance for Development (DGD) project managed by UNDP seeking to assist the Nigerian authorities to consolidate and advance democratic governance and accountability.

Accordingly, the project facilitated the process where over 73 million Nigerians went to the polls during the April general elections through proactive strategies.

The score card in perspective

Some of these strategies cover a 5.5 million dollars support to the Independent National Election Commission to strengthen its capacity to deliver a credible voters’ register, crucial for conducting free and fair elections.

The DGD project also provided financial support to the National Human Rights Commission to train 750 election security personnel and 370 security monitors who helped to ensure security during the polls.

In addition, 365 youth leaders of political parties were trained on non-violence and conflict management.

Similarly, UNDP and its partners provided over 10 million dollars to 18 civil society organizations to support community-based elections education including registration, voting, observation and sensitisation on gender issues.

As part of this initiative, the Alliance for Credible Elections trained and deployed a total of 3,478 observers (2,273 men and 1,205 women) to monitor the voter registration exercise.

The Transitional Monitoring Group also trained and deployed 10,536 domestic observers to observe the elections in 12 conflict-prone states.

Media capacity development

To ensure the effectiveness of the mass media and citizen participation, the DGD project established six regional media centres and trained 250 journalists in the six geo-political zones of the country on ethical coverage of the elections.

Under this initiative, the project developed, printed and disseminated 7,000 copies of the Media Guide for the 2011 Elections, and engaged with media owners and editors to ensure objective, balanced and conflict-sensitive reporting of the elections.

Women support

In order to enhance women’s representation and participation in the political process, meetings were held in all the states with over 1,000 male and female political party officials to encourage the inclusion of more women on the candidate lists before the party primaries.

In all, 2,043 women politicians and candidates received various training to enable them to engage more effectively in the electoral processes.

This support had the collective effect of enhancing the conditions that contributed to making Nigeria’s 2011 elections possibly the most successful in the country’s democratic history.

Commendable support

Against this backdrop, the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Nigeria and the UNDP Resident Representative, Mr. Daouda Toure, has lauded the level of support which the UN agencies and their partners gave to the Nigerian authorities in achieving a successful general election.

Toure said:“the international community at the level of Ambassadors who meet regularly with us, monitors in the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, all of them, without exception, have declared that the elections have been free and fair and therefore credible.”

The DGD project, planned for 80 million dollars over five years, covers Nigeria’s 2010-2015 electoral cycle, with funding from UNDP, the European Union, the UK Department for International Development, the Canadian International Development Agency  and the Korean International Cooperation Agency.

It focused primarily on support for voters’ registration, civic education, media training, women’s political representation, training for elections tribunal staff and election observers, and production of information materials and electoral kits.

PR/ Qasim