AREA: Fact: Half of all humans that’ve ever walked the earth were killed by mosquitos. (via @bradplummer). Nigerian court finds Shell liable, and Ex Governor Donald Duke explains in detail how sitting governors rig election (and census too). Naomi Campbell lied, says Mia Farrow.

CODES: A Poem by Temite, and a blogger discusses translating Ghana’s constitution into local languages, and South Korea’s translation problems.

QUOTABLE: “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move.” - Douglas Adams

In theory, one could vote for a candidate that one likes with the first vote – irrespective of the party – and the party whose programmes one finds the most appealing with the second. But in fact, because of the extremely boring nature of German electoral politics, many people do not know the candidates they are voting for, just the parties. It is therefore very common for people to simply mention the names of the parties they are going to vote for. Even if they do not know the candidates they are voting for, they know the parties quite well.

The 598 seats of the parliament are then allocated according to the results of the second votes. While deciding those who end up in the parliament, each party would get the number of seats that represent the percentage it gets in the second votes (the ones for parties). Those who are elected directly by the first vote become members of the parliament; the remaining seats due to the party from the percentage of the votes it got are distributed to candidates according to their place on the party list. The list would have been constituted before the elections. Those who are high on the list will join those who are directly elected as deputies by the electorate to represent the party in the Bundestag. However, in order for a party to have the right to get some of those remaining seats that are not directly elected, it has to have at least 5% of the total votes cast during the general elections. This way, no fringe parties can be part of the parliament. (Don’t worry if your head is swimming from reading this, many Germans don’t understand how it works).

A party needs to have a certain majority before it can form a government. What has happened in last week’s elections is that the classical liberal and pro-business FDP has increased its percentage, while the socialist-leaning SPD has seen its percentage reduced. One way to see this – and many commentators have described it in these terms – is that it is a win for neo-liberal policies, especially since current chancellor Ms Merkel’s liberal conservative CDU can now form a government with a coalition that is closer to the ideals of the CDU. The last elections (2004) resulted in the two largest parties – the CDU and the SPD – forming government, with the SPD as the junior partner in the coalition. It was an uncomfortable coalition, one that saw the CDU, a centre right party, in a coalition with the SPD, a centre left party.

Many commentators have also said that it shows that people are turning against socialist parties. I do not think so. The poor showing of the SPD is partly due to the fact that the party needs to get its acts together. Reports of in-fighting, and the fact that it has a lacklustre, boring and bored-looking (now former) leader, Mr Frank-Walter Steinmeier, certainly did not help things. One other reason is that Germany’s response to the global financial crisis, which is attributed to Ms Merkel’s CDU, has had some positive results. The party campaigned on this, asking the electorate to vote for FDP so that the pro-business party can have enough seats in the parliament to join the CDU in a centre right coalition.

The electorate has done that, and Ms Merkel has the coalition she wants. My leftist friends say they are happy because it will quicken the class war; my pro-business friends say they are happy because Germany can now carry out reforms that it badly needs. Let’s wait and see who will be disappointed.

Someday, we will be able to do this kind of analysis for Nigerian elections.

ELECTORAL PROBLEMS & ISSUES
Prior to the April 25th Ekiti elections, Sokari of Blacklooks focused on the rising political violence and electoral fraud issues across the nation in states where polling occurred. This was obviously a precursor and bad omen for the eventual Ekiti elections which were marred by violence, attacks on journalists and ordinary civilians.  Once the elections took place, Solomonsydelle of Nigerian Curiosity presented a brief history of the events that led to the confusion during the elections and analyzed the various issues related to not just for Nigeria’s upcoming 2011 elections, but democracy, national image and even the possibility of exporting dysfunctional Nigerian election practices to other African countries. Nzesylva discussed the resignation confusion surrounding Ayoka Adebayo, calling it “The Re-branding of Conscience”. Jeremy Weate of Naijablog, kept readers updated with numerous pictures from Ekiti such as this one illustrating that local women resorted to traditional naked protest, all be it semi-naked, to challenge many of the obvious shenanigans that took place during the election and afterward.

Additionally, Akin’s post “When women rage with the pudenda and the paps“, reviewed the Ekiti situation, women’s role in protest and other related issues.

RESULTING OPINIONS
The overwhelming attitude towards the Ekiti election reflected much sadness, disappointment and anger against many of the main actors. As to the violence that occurred, Chinedu Vincent Akuta, of Briefs From Akuta, pointed out that there were an estimated 10,000 police officers in Ekiti to prevent violence. He then wondered if those officers couldn’t prevent violence what would happen in 2011? Imnakoya, of Grandiose Parlor, focused on the role of the Police in the electoral confusion and called for the firing of Mike Okiro, the head of the Nigerian Police Force. ‘Omoluwabi Okebadan‘ put the blame on the federal government which he said continued to to whittle away any goodwill it had left.

Obie Precious, an Abuja resident blogging at Diary of a Naija Youth, discussed his dislike of everyone involved from the PDP, the AC, INEC (Nigeria’s electoral body), and the Police. Furious Frank Talk admitted to laughing when he learned that neighboring governor of Ogun state planned to send in hoodlums to Ekiti but quickly sobered up because he realized that he was witnessing the “demise of democracy in Nigeria”. Ifejem’s Blog focused on the unfair manipulation of the democratic process and political blogger, Adeola Aderounmu of Thy Glory O Nigeria! called the Ekiti election “Another Useless Election” that reflects the abuse of the word”democracy“.

TWEETS ABOUND
On the micro-blogging service, Twitter, interested users learned from Ekitirr that the anti-corruption body, EFCC, was interrogating INEC officers over an alleged N250 million bribe, less than 24 hours after the final poll closed. Ekitirr, a supporter of the AC challenger, had updated others using his phone through out the election. In response to the bribe discussion, Plastiqq noted that he was awaiting the “outcome” of the investigation and others questioned whether or not there would be any concrete results. And Elcij proclaimed “On a more serious note, this nonsense in ekiti is becoming quite dangerous.” This view was shared by many not just on Twitter but also, the many Nigerian bloggers that focused on the elections.

Overall, Nigerian observers of the Ekiti election expressed genuine concern for the future of democracy and elections in the country. Time will tell exactly how these elections will impact others.

SolomonSydelle
www.nigeriancuriosity.com