president have ensured that parties reflect the federal character of Nigeria by securing the support of two-thirds of the states in the federation. This has led to the formation of very large, but often structurally and ideologically incoherent, parties. 227. Another informal, yet effective, rule used by political parties in their choice of candidates for elected officials is political zoning. This is defined as a mechanism of sequentially rotating offices across Nigeria’s six geographical areas. Zoning enjoys widespread support among political elites and members of the middle class concerned with stability, term limits and equitable access to the presidency. The implicit assumption of zoning is that the presidency should rotate between geopolitical zones. 228. In 1999, political parties were required to be national in both their operation and organisation, and to have won elections in a stated number of local government areas before participation in subsequent elections. Since many would-be political parties did not meet these criteria, only three political parties (the PDP, the ANPP and the Alliance for Democracy) competed for the presidency and the National Assembly that year. However, between then and the 2003 elections, the requirement was dropped and many more political parties were registered. Currently, there are 51 political parties, most of which have few or no members in the country. From year to year, most of these parties are inactive and only come to life on the eve of national elections. Therefore, the ruling party, which has been the PDP since 1999, has become the dominant political party, because several of the other parties are unable to coalesce into a single party that is capable of challenging it. This situation is not conducive to the development of competitive politics in the country. Institutions involved in administering the electoral process 229. The electoral body, the INEC, was widely perceived by stakeholders as lacking independence because of the executive role in the appointment and removal of its members. It also lacks financial independence and professional capacity to manage free and fair elections, or elections that substantially reflect the will of the electorate. 230. Election petition tribunals have performed relatively well in both national and state petitions regarding the election of candidates to the legislative bodies and those who occupy the upper positions in the executive, such as the president and state governors. Compared with many African countries, the time for resolution of such petitions appears to be relatively short, that is, within a year or two. A relatively large number of state governors have had their election challenged and some have been nullified. On 26 February 2008, the presidential elections tribunal upheld President Yar’Adua’s election. Traditional rulers 231. 94 As indicated above, there is no formal recognition of traditional rulers provided for in the constitution. They are, however, widely recognised