Nigeria's muddled elections

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 18, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 95-110

  Suberu, Rotimi T ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN   (Nigeria)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 36849067323     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (30)

1. See Daniel N. Posner and Daniel J. Young, "The Institutionalization of Political Power in Africa," Journal of Democracy 18 (July 2007): 126.
2. See the editorial "Yar' Adua: The Challenges Ahead," in The Guardian (Lagos), 4 June 2007;
3. and "Yar' Adua's Election is Third Term in Disguise, Says AC," The Guardian, 26 April 2007.
4. Darren Kew, "The 2003 Elections: Hardly Credible, but Acceptable," in Robert I. Rotberg, ed., Crafting the New Nigeria: Confronting the Challenges (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 2004);
5. International Crisis Group, Nigeria: Failed Elections, Failing State? Africa Report No. 126, 30 May 2007.
6. Wole Soyinka, "2007 Elections and the Gang of Four," at www.nigerianmuse.com/opessays.
7. Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 2007 General Elections: Guidelines for Election Monitoring and Observations (Abuja: INEC, 2007), 2, 11.
8. See Usman Bugaje, "Polls - Neither Free, Fair nor Credible," Daily Trust (Abuja), 17 May 2007;
9. Jibrin Ibrahim, "Nigeria's 2007 Elections: The Fitful Path to Democratic Citizenship," U.S. Institute of Peace Special Report 182, January 2007, 3-4.
10. "Nigeria's Elections: Big Men, Big Fraud and Big Trouble," Economist, 26 April 2007.
11. Peter Lewis and Etannibi Alemika, Seeking the Democratic Dividend: Public Attitudes and Attempted Reform in Nigeria, Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 52, October 2005.
12. See "Expectations for the 2007 Nigerian Elections," Afrobarometer Press Release No. 2, 12 April 2007.
13. Testimony of Wole Soyinka Before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Hearing on "Nigeria at a Crossroads: Elections, Legitimacy and a Way Forward," Washington, D.C., 7 June 2007.
14. Statement of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) International Observation Delegation to Nigeria's April 21 Presidential and National Assembly Elections, Abuja, 23 April 2007, 3.
15. See, for instance, "Country Briefings: Nigeria," Economist Intelligence Unit, 23 January 2007; "This Day Nationwide Opinion Poll," This Day (Lagos), 21 April 2007. A survey by the International Foundation for Elections System (IFES) actually reported Buhari, and not Yar' Adua, to be the marginal frontrunner in the presidential race.
16. See IFES, "What Nigerians Think: Nigerian Public Opinion in the Pre-Election Environment," April 2007.
17. Peter Obi of APGA had been robbed of victory by the PDP in the 2003 Anambra gubernatorial elections. After protracted litigation, he finally replaced the PDP's Chris Nigige as the state governor in March 2006. In April 2007, INEC ignored Obi's protests that he had yet to serve out his constitutional term and held a fresh gubernatorial election in Anambra. This led to another controversial victory for a different PDP candidate, Andy Uba, who assumed the governorship in May 2007. On 14 June 2007, however, the Supreme Court voided Uba's election, restored Obi to power, and affirmed that a new gubernatorial election in Anambra must be timed to coincide with the end of Obi's four-year tenure in 2010.
18. See, for instance, Niyi Bello, "Questions over INECs Documentation in Ondo," The Guardian, 12 June 2007;
19. John Ameh, "INEC Frustrates Ngige's Bid to Inspect Electoral Materials," Punch (Lagos) 12 June 2007;
20. Sheriff Balogun, "INEC Wants to Thwart the Process at the Tribunal-Fayemi," This Day, 26 June 2007;
21. and Phillip Ogunmade, "Politics of Election Tribunal Sittings," This Day, 29 May 2007.
22. Gani Fawehinmi, "The Role of the Election Tribunals," The Guardian (Lagos), 2 May 2007.
23. Oluyemi Osinbajo, "Sub-national Reform Efforts: the Lagos State Experience," in Transparency International, Global Corruption Report 2007 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007): 147-48.
24. Donald L. Horowitz, "Constitutional Courts: A Primer for Decision Makers," Journal of Democracy 17 (October 2006): 125-37.
25. See The Guardian (Lagos), 5 June 2007.
26. Thomas Carothers, "The End of the Transition Paradigm," Journal of Democracy 13 (January 2002): 5-21.
27. Larry Diamond, "Issues in the Constitutional Design of a Third Nigerian Republic," African Affairs 86 (April 1987): 209-26.
28. Diamond, "Issues in the Constitutional Design," 221-22.
29. Abel Guobadia, "How to Improve Nigeria's Electoral System," Memorandum Prepared for the National Political Reform Conference, Abuja, 26 April 2005.
30. See Innocent Chukwuma, "An Election Programmed to Fail": Preliminary Report of the Domestic Election Observation Group on the Presidential and National Assembly Elections Held on Saturday, April 21, 2007, at www.tmgnigeria.org/pressreleases/anelectprgrmed2fail.pdf.