Jump to content

2011 Nigerian parliamentary election

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by InternetArchiveBot (talk | contribs) at 19:25, 26 May 2020 (Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.1). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Parliamentary elections were held in Nigeria on 9 April 2011.

Dates

The election was originally scheduled to be held on 2 April.[1][2] However it was later postponed to 4 April on the originally scheduled day of the election itself[3] as voters turned up in the morning to see ballots had not yet arrived.[4] The next day Attahiru Jega, the head of the electoral commission, said that "The commission weighed all the options and considered the wide-ranging counsel of Nigerians and decided to reschedule all the elections as follows: Saturday, April 9, senate and house of representatives elections; Saturday, April 16, presidential elections; Tuesday, April 26, state houses of assembly and governorship elections. Some parties have said they won't take part. Without political parties there was no election so INEC has to listen to their comments."

This comes after Jega was allocated US$570m budget in August 2010 to overhaul voter lists and acquire more ballot boxes.[5]

Parties

The incumbent People's Democratic Party is running against the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change, amongst others. (CPC), appeared to make inroads in the north.[6]

Campaign

The people living in the oil-producing Niger Delta sought political representation that would be strong enough to be able to deal with a cleanup of the polluted parts of their region.[7]

In Kano State, traditional voting along sectarian lines was seen to change in favour of cross-voting for candidates who seemed most capable of delivering on promises of alleviating poverty.[8]

Violence

In December 2010, bombs went off in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State during a gubernatorial campaign rally. There were also bombings and shooting in the north blamed on Boko Haram. Politicians and police said that the campaign of violence aimed to disrupt the election.[9] Again on 3 March assailants in Abuja attacked a People's Democratic Party rally with a bomb killing three and wounding 21. The police said that the attack occurred just after the state governor Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu made an address and left.[10]

The day before the election a bomb went off by the National Electoral Commission offices in Suleja outside the capital Abuja killing at least eight people. The bombing followed a shooting in Borno state that killed four people, including a member of the incumbent Peoples' Democratic Party.[4] On the day of the election itself another bomb went off in Maiduguri. Yushua Shuaib of the National Emergency Management Agency said there was a possibility of casualties.[4] At least two were later reported to have died. During the campaigning season up to a 100 people were reported to have died in bombings and shootings.[11]

Election

Turnout was reported to be low in the commercial capital of Lagos.[4] Voting in the north continued the next day as there was a high turnout.

Preliminary results indicated that the incumbent People's Democratic Party would lose their parliamentary strength.

The Action Congress of Nigeria made gaines in the southwest, where Lagos is located and the Congress for Progressive Change made gains in the north.

High-profile losses included the PDP's Dimeji Bankole, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and former president Olusegun Obasanjo's daughter in the Senate. However the PDP still had just over half of the one-fifth of the seats declared at the time.[6]

Polling in 15 Senatorial districts and 48 federal constituencies were delayed again until 26 April 2011 due to logistical problems.[12][13]

Results

Party Votes % Seats
People's Democratic Party 13,312,817 46.63 203
Action Congress of Nigeria 5,135,306 17.99 69
Congress for Progressive Change 4,212,283 14.75 38
All Nigeria Peoples Party 2,900,306 10.16 28
Labour Party 982,647 3.44 8
Democratic People's Party 489,074 1.71 1
All Progressives Grand Alliance 487,753 1.71 7
Accord 335,760 1.18 5
People's Party of Nigeria 133,651 0.47 1
Allied Congress Party of Nigeria 87,233 0.31 0
Progressive Peoples Alliance 77,765 0.27 0
People for Democratic Change 62,360 0.22 0
National Transformation Party 53,574 0.19 0
PDA 30,644 0.11 0
African Democratic Congress 28,907 0.10 0
Action Congress 18,732 0.07 0
African Liberation Party 15,361 0.05 0
Social Democratic Mega Party 15,236 0.05 0
Kowa Party 14,736 0.05 0
Mega Progressive Peoples Party 14,698 0.05 0
Alliance for Democracy 13,041 0.05 0
People's Action Congress 12,938 0.05 0
National Conscience Party 11,681 0.04 0
African Political System 9,681 0.03 0
United Nigeria Peoples' Party 9,507 0.03 0
National Solidarity Democratic Party 9,252 0.03 0
People's Redemption Party 9,215 0.03 0
ANC 8,556 0.03 0
Democratic Front for People's Federation 7,390 0.03 0
African Renaissance Party 6,958 0.02 0
Change Advocacy Party 6,612 0.02 0
United Democratic Party 6,015 0.02 0
Citizens Popular Party 5,500 0.02 0
Congress for Democratic Change 5,412 0.02 0
Action Party of Nigeria 3,038 0.01 0
Movement for the Restoration of Defence and Democracy 2,856 0.01 0
Justice Party 2,617 0.01 0
Hope Democratic Party 2,561 0.01 0
Fresh Democratic Party 2,156 0.01 0
People's Progressive Party 844 0.00 0
Advanced Congress of Democrats 779 0.00 0
NAP 735 0.00 0
Nigeria People's Congress 693 0.00 0
Allied Congress Party 640 0.00 0
People's Salvation Party 616 0.00 0
Freedom Party of Nigeria 510 0.00 0
Movement of the People Party 495 0.00 0
UPGA 416 0.00 0
Community Party of Nigeria 392 0.00 0
National Reformation Party 308 0.00 0
National Majority Democratic Party 295 0.00 0
DFPD 274 0.00 0
Republican Party of Nigeria 256 0.00 0
MCP 229 0.00 0
New Nigeria People's Party 204 0.00 0
National Movement of Progressive Party 204 0.00 0
NTA 128 0.00 0
People's Mandate Party 127 0.00 0
Better Nigeria Progressive Party 120 0.00 0
FNP 43 0.00 0
Movement for Democracy and Justice 3 0.00 0
Total 28,552,140 100 360
Source: INEC

References

  1. ^ "Nigeria's General Elections Postponed From January To April As A New Voter Registration Software Is Released by the Inec - West African News". Allwestafrica.com. 24 September 2010. Archived from the original on 2 December 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  2. ^ "Nigeria to hold presidential election on 9 April". Bbc.co.uk. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  3. ^ the CNN. "Nigeria postpones parliamentary election - CNN.com". Edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 9 April 2011. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ a b c d "Nigeria hit by second blast as polls continue - Africa". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  5. ^ "Nigeria elections postponed for second time - Africa". Al Jazeera English. 3 April 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  6. ^ a b "Nigeria ruling party loses political ground - Africa". Al Jazeera English. 10 April 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  7. ^ "Oil and democracy in the Niger Delta - Africa". Al Jazeera English. 12 April 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  8. ^ "Nigeria poll reveals shift in allegiances - Africa". Al Jazeera English. 13 April 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  9. ^ "Bombs, shootings hit Nigeria before election year | World | Reuters". Af.reuters.com. 29 December 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  10. ^ (AFP) (3 March 2011). "AFP: Bomb blast kills three at Nigeria rally: police". Google.com. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  11. ^ "Vote counting under way in Nigeria - Africa". Al Jazeera English. 9 April 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  12. ^ "Nigeria: Some elections delayed again - Yahoo! News". News.yahoo.com. 18 January 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  13. ^ "An Address by the Chairman of INEC, Prof. A. M. Jega on Preparations for the rescheduled National Assembly Elections (Affected Sen. & Fed Const. inserted)". INEC Nigeria. Archived from the original on 16 April 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2011.

Further reading

  • Ayoade, John A., and Adeoye A. Akinsanya, eds. Nigeria's Critical Election, 2011 (Lexington Books; 2012)