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Paper short abstract:

Nigeria's 2023 general elections process provides an interesting glimpse into a future of more domestic and civil society-led election observations, which utilise a stronger nuanced understanding of domestic politics to provide accountability where external missions were often limited and unable to

Paper long abstract:

Election observation missions have become a permanent fixture in African elections, with the statements and reports of these organisations playing a major role in legitimising or questioning the outcome and the process as a whole. Yet, there are factors affecting the efficacy of these observation structures. Donor agencies are increasingly cash-strapped and forced to prioritise other means to support Africa’s civic development, which has led to less funding and less sufficient preparation before elections. Election missions are also largely constricted to the established metropoles, due to rising demographic clashes, which leads to a half-baked and ultimately flawed understanding of the challenges in the election space.

However, where foreign observation missions are failing, domestic structures are rising. Civil society organisations are collaborating and leveraging nuanced understandings to inform the election observation process. Citizens and civic-minded groups are also leveraging technology, social media, fact-checking and general accountability innovations. There are also conscious civic education projects to ensure better understanding of electoral processes, especially where there are new additions to the law.

Using the Nigerian 2023 general elections as a case study, this paper will look at the impact that ongoing security concerns, unreliable polling data and an ethno-religious charged election landscape have had in limiting the efficacy of external election observation interventions. It will also look at the innovations that civil societies employed in the run-up to the elections and will assess if such templates are applicable in the West African region and the continent at large.