The international politics of observing elections, By Owei Lakemfa

International observers arrive, make observations and fly out, leaving local residents to their fate; many birds from the discourse that perch for a few days and fly away to other areas of interest… Africa must welcome international election observers, but not as missionaries as in the pre-colonial days, but as interested parties from which we have nothing to hide .

Nigeria’s 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections are so contentious and contentious, some are calling for their immediate cancellation. While we all have our opinions, nothing to be discounted, I wonder if anyone is quoting the reports of international election observers, as if they contain gospel truth. As someone who has officially and unofficially observed elections in Africa, Europe and Latin America, I suggest to those who rely on such reports to do so with the consciousness that observing elections is not value-free.

International Election Monitors or observers are not tourists interested in wildlife, sunbathing or visiting historical or beautiful sites; they are politically conscious people in their mission. These are educated people who can see the same events but come to different interpretations and conclusions, depending on their motives.

Sometimes, as in Nigerian elections, some observers act like active actors who feel entitled to magisterial declarations and actions. For example, the European Union Election Observation Mission, which has 110 observers from 25 member states, Canada, Norway and Switzerland, titled its preliminary report: “Elections were held on schedule, but lack of transparency and operational failures reduced confidence in the process. and challenged the right to vote .” It almost eliminated the election due to “lack of transparency”.

Internationally, the national election bodies announce the results of the elections, which are the only results allowed, unless decided by the courts. To emphasize this a day after the election, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, said on television that all organizations should “draw figures (of the election results) only from the official results released by the commission. the only body responsible constitutionally responsible for releasing official election figures.

But the EU will not follow these basic rules. A day after Yakubu’s statement, and two days before INEC’s official results were announced, the EU, in a public report, announced that: “Yiaga (a local observer group) is tabulating parallel votes for the presidential election.” In line with this announcement, YIAGA announced its own presidential election results which differed from INEC. After INEC announced that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu got 36.6% or 8.79 million votes; People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar scored 29.1% or 6.98 million votes, and Labor Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi scored 25.4% or 6.1 million votes, YIAGA cheekily announced its own results. It states that: “A statistical analysis of Yiaga Africa shows that the All Progressives Congress, APC, should receive between 34.4 percent and 37.4 percent of the votes, the Labor Party, LP should receive between 24.2 percent and 28.4 percent of the votes, the Party The New Nigerian People, NNPP, must receive between 4.6 percent and 6.4 percent of the vote, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, must receive between 28.3 percent and 31.1 percent of the vote, while no other political party must receive more more than 0.3 percent of the vote.

The Commonwealth Observer Group led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, followed a different approach to the EU. It said: “Despite the shortcomings identified in the election, Nigerians in general were given the right to vote. …We call on all those who have grievances to resolve their disputes through established legal channels.

The AU report describes what we see on the ground. Likewise from the Nigeria Electoral Mission led by former Interim Head of Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan. But the Commonwealth Observer Mission, led by former Military Head of State, retired General Abdulsalam Abubakar, issued conflicting reports. This is one that should be written before the election, in accordance with the Commonwealth’s decision to use it as an excuse to expel Zimbabwe from membership.

In contrast to the Commonwealth, a joint report by the American International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) contained a blistering attack: “the elections still fall short of the legitimate and reasonable expectations of Nigerians. Logistical failures, challenges with voter registration and voter card distribution, Inadequate communication by INEC, lack of transparency in the publication of electoral data, and unchecked political violence before and during the elections overshadowed the additional administrative gains achieved in the pre-election period, and prevented many citizens from voting.

A joint report by the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) contrasted America. He asked: “political parties and their candidates to resolve electoral disputes through peaceful means and dialogue, in accordance with the law.”

The report reminded me of the 2002 Presidential Election in Zimbabwe, where I was part of the AU Election Monitoring Team. Every day, we go out with other international observers and in the evening, we compare notes. We all have the same report, which shows that there was no voter intimidation, no violence, the elections went smoothly and reflected the will of Zimbabweans. Where the opposition felt that some voters were left out, they went to court on the evening of the election and the judge added one extra day of voting, which was followed by the electoral body.

The AU report describes what we see on the ground. Likewise from the Nigeria Electoral Mission led by former Interim Head of Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan. But the Commonwealth Observer Mission, led by former Military Head of State, retired General Abdulsalam Abubakar, issued conflicting reports. This is one that should be written before the election, in accordance with the Commonwealth’s decision to use it as an excuse to expel Zimbabwe from membership. Reading this body language, Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe decided to leave the Commonwealth.

In general, there are security implications when monitoring elections because accredited people will have access to electoral areas and, possibly, gathering centers where people will determine or determine the future of their country.

So, should countries like Nigeria simply stamp the passports of election observers or will it be democratic to present and decide what visas to grant and visa applications to reject?

We must ask ourselves why the country or organization decided to invest in our elections. Perhaps the AU coming to observe the Nigerian elections would be like some peer review mechanism. It is understood that ECOWAS sent a team of observers in solidarity with the Nigerian state. But why would so many observers travel from all over the world to observe Nigeria’s elections – as guardians of democracy?

We must ask ourselves why the country or organization decided to invest in our elections. Perhaps the AU coming to observe the Nigerian elections would be like some peer review mechanism. It is understood that ECOWAS sent a team of observers in solidarity with the Nigerian state. But why would so many observers travel from all over the world to observe Nigeria’s elections – as guardians of democracy?

Why would they spend so much money to fund multiple local groups to observe the same election they are going to do? It’s impossible for them not to trust the locals they’re funding.

We should also wonder why countries like China and India, which account for 36% of the world’s population, do not actively monitor elections, at least in Africa.

International observers arrive, make observations and fly out, leaving local residents to their fate; many birds stay for a few days and fly to other areas.

Africans should welcome international election observers, but not as missionaries as in pre-colonial times, but as interested parties with nothing to hide.

Owei Lakemfa, former secretary general of African labor, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.