A study of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria

Authors

Jibrin Ibrahim 
Dauda Garuba 

Keywords:

study, Independent, National, Electoral, Commission

Synopsis

This report on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is part of a broader project on Modelling Success: Governance and Institutionbuilding in West Africa being implemented by the Consortium for Development
Partnerships (CDP), a community of institutions dedicated to collaborative policy-oriented research and capacity-building in North America, Europe and West Africa. The Consortium is jointly coordinated by the Council
for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Programme of African Studies (PAS), Northwestern University, USA. The project focuses on the identification of concrete strategies to advance
institutional performance in Africa through an in-depth analysis of institutions which are key in ensuring that governments and public officials act in the public interest. Generally speaking, the project highlights good practices, lessons of value, and successes in the functioning of these institutions with an emphasis on making the linkage between good practice and models of success in democratic governance. The report is structured into eleven sections, with the first four sections dealing with preliminary issues of Preamble, Introduction: Background and
Statement of Problem, Research Objectives, and Methodology. These are followed by Context: Development of Political System and Its Influence on Performance of Electoral Authority, Institutional Autonomy and Design,Organisational Structure, Capacity and Adaptability, Leadership and Inclusiveness, Electoral Process: Design and Implementation, Public Trust and Social Capital, and Challenges of Reform and Policy Recommendation.

     

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Author Biographies

Jibrin Ibrahim 

is the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Bordeaux, France and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and the University of Toronto, Canada. His areas of specialization are democratization, political economy of poverty reduction, comparative federalism, and religious and ethnic identities.

 

Dauda Garuba 

is Senior Programme Officer, Peace and Security, with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Nigeria. He is also a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science, University of Benin, Nigeria. His academic and project implementation interests are in peace and security, democratic governance and political economy.

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Published

July 21, 2010

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