Chamber:
	House of Representatives
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	22 February 1999
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the seats in the House of Representatives as part of the transitional programme aimed at restoring civilian rule by May 1999. General elections had previously taken place in April 1998 but were subsequently annulled.
Background and outcome of elections:
	Valid general elections had previously been held in July 1992. A year later, in November, the bicameral Parliament was dissolved after the military takeover led by General Sani Abacha. In October 1995, a three-year transitional programme aimed at restoring civilian rule was announced and, in September 1996, the political party system which had been suspended was re-established by the Armed Forces Provisional Revolutionary Council. However, only parties approved by the Government were entitled to nominate candidates to public office. The parliamentary elections were part of a series under the democracy plan that had already seen local council and state assembly polling and which was due to culminate on February 27 with presidential voting. National legislative elections had already taken place on 25 April 1998, but were subsequently annulled. In June 1998, Gen. Abacha died and was succeeded as Head of State by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar. The latter introduced sweeping economic and political reforms and vowed to hand over power to a civilian government in May 1999. In the 1999 parliamentary poll, three parties fielded candidates for the 360 House of Representatives and 109 Senate seats. They were the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All People's Party (APP), the last two groups being allied. PDP had been the most successful in the December 1998/January 1999 local and state elections. During the campaign, all parties made similar promises to revitalize Nigeria after 15 years of military régimes. However, little ideological differences separated the groups and articulated platforms were largely absent. Instead, the pre-election period was dominated by political maneuvering and a search for support along ethnic and regional lines. Polling day was generally peaceful but marked by a low turnout. International and local observers who monitored the voting noted "some serious irregularities" but deemed the elections generally fair. Final results gave the centre-left PDP an absolute majority in both the House and Senate while the centre-right APP topped the radical AD for second place. In the presidential election of 27 February, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, the PDP candidate who had ruled from 1976 to 1979, defeated Mr. Olu Falae, the AD-APP nominee. He took office on 29 May and the newly elected Parliament held its first sitting on 3 June. On 30 June, President Obasanjo swore in the new civilian Cabinet.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (22 February 1999): Elections results
Number of registered electors	57 938 945
Voters	23 573 407 (41 %)

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total
People's Democratic Party (PDP)	215
All People's Party (APP)	70
Alliance for Democracy (AD)	66

Comments:
	Vacant seats to be filled: 9

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	339
Women:	312
Percent of women:	3.42