Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC): An Organizational Assessment

The April 2011 general elections were considered generally successful not because INEC committed fewer or less errors than the previous ones. Some of the commission’s operational and logistical shortcomings were serious enough to justify early doubts on its organizational readiness to conduct the elections. Rather, the success of the last elections could be attributed to the fact that the voters and major stakeholders – political parties, civil society organizations, media, international and local observers, etc. – were convinced that the poll results were a product of credible, inclusive, participatory and transparent electoral processes despite the various problems encountered during the preparations and conduct thereof. Related thereto, and equally important, was the general perception that the current leadership of the electoral commission is more independent and trustworthy. Although not comprehensive and exhaustive, it appeared from the reviewed documents that the problems encountered during the poll preparations and election days were a combination of various factors that included legal and bureaucratic restrictions, difficult and sometimes hostile political environment, political indifference of some voters and organizational inadequacies of INEC. Most of these problems, as documented by observation mission reports and post-election retreats, were tackled and integrated in this study. Their recommendations, together with the proposals gathered from the Reports of the post-election retreat of INEC officials and staff, were compiled and presented as an annex to this paper.