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PH:DR: ECOWAS deploys 163 Observers for the elections of Governors and State Assemblies in Nigeria for this March 18, 2023
The President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Commission), His Excellency Dr Omar Alieu TOURAY, has approved the deployment of an ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM -ECOWAS) responsible for supervising the gubernatorial and state assembly elections to be held on Saturday, March 18, 2023 in Nigeria.
The deployment of the one hundred and sixty-three (163) observers is in accordance with the provisions of Articles 42(2) and 44(b) of the ECOWAS Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution and Peacekeeping. and Security signed in 1999, Article 12 of the 2001 Additional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, and Article 53(c) of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework, signed in 2008.
Observers include officials from Community institutions (the Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice), West African Ambassadors accredited to ECOWAS, officials from electoral commissions and Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Member States, as well as electoral experts from civil society. The Mission will also include a task force of thirteen electoral experts who visited the country ahead of the presidential and legislative elections.
The mission will be supported by an ECOWAS technical team, placed under the general coordination of Ambassador Abdel-Fatau MUSAH, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security.
The March 18 elections will close the current electoral cycle in Nigeria, following the February 25 presidential and legislative elections, during which ECOWAS deployed 250 observers in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The Election Observation Mission composed of 163 members will be deployed from 15 to 21 March 2023 in eighteen (18) States, identified on the basis of a technical assessment and analysis of trends and hot spots, to ensure physical and remote monitoring of elections.
These states are: South West: Lagos – Ogun – Oyo ; South-South: Rivers–Edo–Delta ; South East : Enugu – Ebonyi – Imo ; Centre-North: Nasarawa – Plateau – Benue ; North West : Kano – Kaduna – Sokoto and North East: Maiduguri – Adamawa – Taraba
