Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-287"
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"en.20070523.21.3-287"2
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".
Madam President, I should like to say something on behalf of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, rather than as head of the Election Observation Mission, because that is a different role.
The European Election Observation Mission has had to conclude that the elections in Nigeria were not credible. This is unfortunate, because despite the improved atmosphere in which the freedom of expression of opinion was respected during the campaign and despite the positive and independent role played by the law courts, the election process, and subsequently the results, cannot be seen as credible. The Council has confirmed, as has the Commissioner, that this is indeed the case.
The Nigerian elections were badly organised and intransparent; there were far-reaching procedural irregularities and there was clear evidence of fraud. The process fell well short of the measure of international and regional standards for democratic elections.
The point which the Council made a moment ago, namely failure to publish the results either in polling stations or at higher levels, and hence the complete lack of proof and transparency is, and remains, in fact, the most serious problem, because as a result, nothing can be proven or refuted, and this takes all the credibility out of the electoral result as such.
This is simply, as we have established, one of the toughest verdicts which we as Election Observation Mission have passed in the different countries. This was particularly painful, because after 2003, there was real hope among the people that actual improvements would follow. The people were committed. When many people have made the necessary efforts and have shown commitment, then something like this will hit them particularly hard. If you compare 14 April to 21 April: at the governor’s elections on 14 April, there was still a great deal of hope, whereas the situation on the 21 April was simply demoralising. This also explains the low turn-out, despite the upbeat figures that were published afterwards.
What conclusion are we Europeans to draw from this? That we should, emphatically, remain committed, and this is where I agree with the Council and the Commission in their conclusions. It is, after all, the Nigerian people we are talking about, and they deserve a better future and serious elections.
This means, therefore, that in our diplomatic relations, we cannot pretend that the government that has just been appointed has been elected in a democratic manner at all. This is, of course, a very tricky business. We could do business as usual, provided we remain involved and active. Business as usual would affect not only the credibility of our European Election Observation Missions, but also – and to a far greater extent – our own values for which we stand when we act in the world and in a country such as this. We should therefore come clean and conclude that we have a democratic crisis on our hands at the moment.
This crisis has partly become evident before the courts, where a number of people have objected and tried to prove that certain things are simply wrong. It has also become evident, and can become evident, via working parties of the Senate and the House of Representatives, who are launching investigations of their own and are trying to table fresh proposals. And we have to wait and see, of course, how people in Nigeria come to table their own proposals on the question as to how credible elections can be held.
I have said before that it is not up to us to work this out in detail, but this is the essence and it would be good if in this respect, our resources could be put in place, preferably not with the federal government and with the state, but with all those players in society who can promote governance and democracy in this way."@en1
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