IWU: INEC PREPARED, STEADY AND READY TO GO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000632

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/29/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM NI
SUBJECT: IWU: INEC PREPARED, STEADY AND READY TO GO


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Classified By: Political Counselor Russell Hanks for reasons 1.4 (b and
d)


1. (U) SUMMARY: INEC Chairman Maurice Iwu told a packed
audience of diplomats in Abuja that INEC is prepared to
conduct credible elections as scheduled. He said that INEC
had no intention of delaying the elections because of the
death of a presidential candidate, although he acknowledged
that it is possible that "late court decisions" in several
pending cases could lead to serious problems. International
observers will be accredited one week before the elections to
minimize disruptions to ongoing preparations and some
domestic observer groups would be banned because of their
partisan affiliations and national security reasons. End
summary.

INEC SAYS IT IS ELECTION READY, OBSERVERS WELCOME
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2. (U) INEC Chairman spoke on March 30 to a packed house of
Abuja-based diplomats about INEC's assessment of the state of
preparations. The one and half hour briefing featured a 45
minute presentation by Chairman Iwu and 40 minutes of
questions and answer. In the briefing Iwu confirmed that INEC
did not intend to postpone elections, that its logistical
preparations are "90-95 completed," and that the final plans
for conducting elections and announcing results were entering
their final stages.


3. (U) Diplomats raised concerns about the lack of
specificity regarding the accreditation of international
election observers. In response, Iwu said that accreditation
would wait until the week before the elections. He provided
few details about how the process would be conducted. He
said that the web-based observer registration system had been
abandoned because of concerns about fraud.


4. (U) Iwu also said that observers would be allowed free
movement, although INEC would request "advance notice" of
where observers would be deployed, and might advise them to
against going to some places because of security concerns.
International observers could ignore the advice, he said.
Long term observers already in the country, he continued,
would also have to wait for the accreditation process to
begin.


5. (U) Iwu characterized the registration process as INEC's
greatest challenge and estimated that 90 percent of eligible
voters had registered, and that the finally tally would be
about 61.5 million registered voters. He revealed that the
"pilot" electronic registration plans had been a failure but
the computer-based process had worked much better. He told
diplomats that the voter's register would be on display
before the election, to allow voters to find their polling
stations and verify their registration. The system NOW in
place would allow the register to be dynamic and constantly
updated, something that would continue immediately after
elections in April.


6. (U) On election days, Iwu said, the polls would be open
from 8am to 3pm and the results would be declared at each
polling station. Final results would be available within
three days. An American "auditing firm" would be involved in
verifying the collation process. Iwu said the vote tallies
would be transmitted electronically and would be supplemented
by the physical transport of ballot boxes by road. Iwu also
said that in the necessity of a run-off, INEC was prepared
to conduct the second round of the election the following
week." If we were to have elections tomorrow, we would be
ready," he said.


7. (U) Iwu said that INEC was in the process of preparing a
general information campaign to inform voters of where, when
and how to vote. The campaign would be on radio and
television, he said. INEC was also in the process of hiring
and training more than a half a million ad-hoc workers for
election day and that he had volunteers from many of
Nigeria's leading NGOs and professional associations. Iwu
told the diplomats that preparations even in the Niger Delta
were well advanced and well-prepared.

IWU DEFENDS ATIKU'S EXCLUSION
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8. (U) When questioned, Iwu defended the exclusion of Vice

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President Atiku from the ballot, and told diplomats that the
legal decisions rendered had in fact favored INEC, and that
the media had been deliberately misleading in it reports on
the judgments. He said that INEC had not disobeyed any
"cogent and verifiable" court orders and would follow any
subsequent decisions. He suggested that any of the
contestants who still had outstanding issues should go to the
election tribunals for relief, and he faulted the AC party
for not removing Atiku as its candidate until the courts
decide he is eligible.


9. (U) "Late decisions by the judiciary" could have an
impact on the conduct of the elections, Iwu said. He
reiterated that INEC had no intention of delaying the
election because of the death of the AD candidate, although
that party might chose to file a case, and he would be forced
to abide by the judge's decision.


10. (C) COMMENT: Iwu's presentation was consistent with his
previous diplomatic briefings and his recent public
statements alleging that INEC is prepared and ready for
credible elections on schedule. The only major problem he
could possibly foresee would be "late court decisions," which
could cause a delay, against the wishes of INEC. His
presentation, while optimistic, did little to convince those
in the audience that all is well and is almost diametrically
contrary to the views of NDI, IRI, and IFES, all of which
believe that Nigeria is ill-prepared for elections in two
weeks.
CAMPBELL