Abuja, March 17 (IANS): The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) on Tuesday said it has deployed a more long-term election observation mission in Nigeria, to monitor the country's March 28 presidential and national assembly elections.

In a statement, the West African bloc said it has the full complement of its 17-member long-term election observation mission, among which 11 of the observers had already joined their colleagues in the field, Xinhua news agency reported.

The first batch of the regional observers returned to Nigeria on March 2, following the postponement of the Nigerian presidential and national assembly elections from February 14.

The observation mission is part of the larger 250-strong ECOWAS Election Observation Mission headed by former Ghanaian president John Kufuor, named by the president of the ECOWAS Commission Kadre Desire Ouedraogo to monitor the elections in Nigeria.

Deployment of the poll observers by the ECOWAS Commission is consistent with the regional protocol on democracy and good governance and demonstration of support and solidarity with member states organising elections toward the deepening of democracy and good governance in the region.