Nigerians vote for a new parliament on Saturday in the first of a series of landmark elections this month as Africa’s most populous nation seeks to overcome a history of deeply flawed and violent polls.
Violence has occurred in the run-up to the vote, including bomb blasts and politically related clashes, but officials have pledged a free and fair ballot and a massive security deployment was expected on election day.
The head of the electoral commission, a respected academic appointed in mid-2010, delivered an impassioned plea in Africa’s largest oil producer on Friday, saying “we must not fail and we must get it right”.
Attahiru Jega said many expected that Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999 would have by now produced a “stable democratic system in which peaceful, free, fair and credible elections are routine and taken for granted”.
“Unfortunately, this is still not the case and Nigerians are yet to reap the dividends of democracy,” he said.
The election for the 360-member house of representatives and 109-member senate comes ahead of the presidential vote on April 9 and governorship and state assembly ballots on April 16.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party controls a comfortable majority of seats in the parliament, but some analysts say Saturday’s vote could significantly loosen its grip on the legislature.
Seats in the parliament are sought after in part because of the bloated pay and allowance packages members receive in a country where corruption is deeply rooted.
Accurate figures on how much they earn in total are difficult to find because of budgeting methods that hide certain allowances, pressure groups say.
Rights activist Festus Keyamo said they “are collecting full-time salaries and other allowances they illegally and fraudulently allocate to themselves”.
Some 73.5 million people have registered to vote in the country, where the total population has been estimated at some 150 million, divided roughly in half between Christians and Muslims.
Many observers say the stakes for the election season are nothing short of whether the West African powerhouse can finally begin to chart a course that will allow it to live up to its huge potential.
President Goodluck Jonathan is the clear favourite to win on April 9, but his main challenger, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, has major support in the country’s mostly Muslim north.
Governorship polls may hold the most risk for violence, with the PDP also at risk for losing in some states.
The recently installed electoral commission headed by Jega has raised hopes that the vote will be better conducted this time. Jonathan has repeatedly promised a free and fair election.
The commission has done away with an old electoral list littered with false entries and created a new one by taking electronic fingerprints of every potential voter before issuing them a card.
Polling places will open at 0700 GMT, but the first four hours will be dedicated to “accreditation” of voters — a verification exercise that will be matched up against the number of ballots cast.
Actual voting is expected to begin at 1130 GMT and continue until all those accredited cast ballots. The electoral commission is aiming to announce results within two days after the election.
Apr22011