Development Partners and Nigeria’s Electoral Process

Nigeria position as a regional hegemon and elections assuming a war-like as well as zero-sum dimension among politicians in Nigeria have motivated development partner’s support for Nigeria’s electoral process aimed at addressing some structural issues that act as setback to Independent National Electoral Commission’s performance in the conduct of credible elections; discrimination against women in Nigerian politics; absence of capacity development for CSOs at the state and local government level and the increasing trend of personality-based politics in Nigerian media especially during elections.The DGD has improved INEC’s institutional capacity; strategic planning and operational competency; staff professional development; voter registration; strategic engagement with electoral stakeholders to promote political party reform;legal reform involving the legislature; civic education; election monitoring and observation; and gender mainstreaming in the electoral process; the democratic functioning of political parties, professionalizing their administration, strengthening inter-party dialogue and enabling political parties to effectively engage with the electoral and democratic process.