Niger's former Interim President to head ECOWAS election observation mission to Guinea Bissau

ABUJA, Nigeria, March 12, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The ECOWAS Commission has named Niger's former Interim President, Gen. Salou Djibo, as the head of its 80-member Observation Mission to the 18th March 2012 presidential election in Guinea Bissau.

Gen. Djibo, who headed Niger's Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) between February 2010 and April 2011, will head the mission which will be deployed across all the country's nine regions, which includes two Islands.

Other members of the mission are drawn from the ECOWAS Council of the Wise, representatives of the ECOWAS Parliament and Community Court of Justice, legal and electoral experts from Member States as well as representatives of civil society organizations in West Africa.

The deployment of the election observers is being preceded by an ECOWAS fact-finding mission that will meet with officials of the National Electoral Commission, the government, security agencies, diplomatic missions and civil society organizations, to exchange views and assess preparations for the election.

The presidential election, which follows the death of President Malam Bacai Sanha on 9th January 2012, is critical to the political stabilization and consolidation of peace in Guinea Bissau.