SL high commissioner selected to be an observer in Nigerian election
Veluppillai Kana Kananathan, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Kenya, has been selected to monitor and observe yesterday’s Nigerian Presidential and Parliamentary election.
He will be part of the Observers of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria.
The election has kicked up a lot of dust already with aggressive campaigning by the contesting parties, which have included shootings and assassinations of rivals.
Last year, Mr. Kananathan was part of the Kenya Election Monitoring and Observers working with a team of high profile observers. i.e. former Presidents of Tanzania, Burundi, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Jamaica among others.
This time, he will join Kenya’s former President Uhuru Kenyatta, South Africa’s former President Thabo Mbeki, former Sierra Leone President Ernest Koroma, and members from the African Union and the Commonwealth Observer Group.
The elections have attracted 18 contestants with the main contenders being Peter Obi (Labour Party), Atiku Abubakar (People’s Democratic Party) and Bola Ahmed Tinubu (All Progressive Congress). Currently, Peter Obi is ahead in the polls and being supported by a large following of young people, according to pollsters.
Recent changes in the voting system include biometric data to ensure voters’ identities’ and sending results electronically rather than manually to prevent tampering and vote rigging activities which has been a major concern during past elections. For the first time in decades, Nigeria’s three main ethnic groups (Yoruba, Igbo and HausaFulani) take centre-stage.
Nigeria, an oil rich nation, has a total of 93.46 million registered voters.