TAIWO AMODU writes on the expectations of the electorate from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), come Saturday when governorship election will hold in Kogi and Bayelsa states.
Next Saturday, the electorate in Kogi and Bayelsa States will be voting for candidates of their choice to administer the respective states for another four-year tenure.
For the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the elections in the two states afford it the opportunity to again turn itself to the butt of criticisms or assure Nigerians that, indeed, it was not indifferent to the disaffection that trailed its conduct of the 2019 general elections and it has made amends.
Reports presented by the various local and international observers that monitored the last general elections were not assuring about the impartiality or neutrality of the commission in the electoral process.
THE European Union Election Observation Mission on the 2019 general election, in its report presented in Abuja, two months after the general elections, passed a damning verdict that touched on the integrity of the processes in the elections conducted by the INEC.
The EU Chief Observer, Maria Arena, said the electoral processes from voting, collation and final declaration of results were not too transparent.
She said: “The national collation centre for the presidential election was open to party agents and observers, and was continuously televised. However, inconsistent numbers, lack of clear checks and explanations, and insufficient public information undermined confidence in the integrity of the election.
“There was a large discrepancy of 1.66 million fewer registered voters recorded than was previously announced by INEC in January. Polling was cancelled without sufficient accountability.
“The main reasons given were incidences of violence, over-voting and non-use of smart card readers, resulting in the annulment of voting for nearly 2.8 million registered voters.
“Lack of transparency in the use of smart card readers meant that it was not clear if all polling units with problems were cancelled as was required in INEC guidelines.” This is from excerpts from the 88-page report which also contained 30 recommendations to INEC on future elections.
INEC itself has been conscious of some of these reports that cast aspersions on its integrity. At a recent workshop ahead of the next Saturday elections in Kogi and Bayelsa, the Chairman of the Board of INEC’s Electoral Institute, who is also a National Commissioner, Prince Solomon Soyebi, said of the two forthcoming governorship elections: “The election will provide the commission with yet another opportunity to test-run its policies, processes and new initiatives.
“Since the conduct and outcome of the 2019 general election, the commission has done a lot to reorganise and strengthen its processes, procedures and systems for better performances.”
According to Prince Soyebi, “although the conduct of the 2019 general election and the commission’s performance had some challenges, we can use the 2019 general election as a barometer for comparison with subsequent elections, including the Bayelsa governorship election. Clearly, the commission is not under any illusion about the many issues and challenges posed by the electoral process.”
The INEC commissioner further said efforts would be made to further strategically reposition the commission and strengthen its capability to deliver successful elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states, to serve as tests case on lessons learnt from the challenges at the 2019 general elections and improvement for the future.
What are the challenges ahead of the electoral body and what is its leadership doing to walk its talk on fidelity to a free, fair transparent process?
Chairman of the INEC, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, at various meetings with stakeholders ahead of next weekend exercise, enunciated some of the obstacles such as anticipated violence, voter inducement as being key challenges.
At a recent meeting with head of security chiefs, Professor Yakubu had alerted the nation that political parties were already mobilising thugs for the process.
Professor Yakubu, who was silent on the political parties involved, however, assured the electorate in the two states that the electoral body in conjunction with security chiefs, had since identified the flash points in the two states.
He said: “There are already warning signals in the two states. Both are politically volatile. Elections have been severally disrupted by violence in the past. Our own risk assessment which will be shared with the security agencies at this meeting has identified some flash points. We are also concerned that thugs have been mobilised from within and outside the States with the aim of either influencing the elections or disrupting the process on behalf of partisan sponsors.
“This calls for a robust response before the elections, on Election Day and during the process of collation and declaration of results. Nigerians expect that by now we have learnt enough lessons from previous elections to ensure a swift security response to the increasing desperation by political actors to disrupt elections and subvert the will of the electorate. If that happens, many Nigerians will blame the electoral umpire and the security agencies. We must continue to rise to this challenge.
“On our part, INEC is committed to the integrity of the process. Over the last seven months, we have been working assiduously to ensure that we conduct credible elections. We cannot undermine the processes we have so laboriously established. We are equally confident in the assurances we have received from the security agencies of civil and professional conduct by their personnel deployed for the elections. We have been re-assured by the security agencies that Election Day activities at polling units and collation centres will not be disrupted by the activities of hoodlums neither will thugs be allowed to cart away results sheets or compel our Returning Officers to make declarations under duress. We are equally re-assured that security personnel will adhere strictly to the standard operational guidelines and deal decisively with misconduct by their personnel on election duty. We are equally confident that with the sheer number of personnel the security agencies are deploying in the two States, there can be no excuse for the processes to be undermined by anti democratic elements.”
In attendance at the meeting where the INEC chairman made the disclosures were the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, while Sanusi Galadima represented the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno.
Sunday Tribune findings, however, revealed that some of the volatile areas in Kogi State have since been identified. They include Okene, Kabba, Ankpa, Anyamgba, Dekina, Igalamela and Ofu.
In his response at the meeting where Professor Yakubu raised the alarm, the IGP said the police was fully prepared for the security challenge.
“We are aware of the security challenges in the two states and we have made adequate provision in terms of personnel and logistics to overcome any security challenge that will manifest,” he said.
He further revealed that he had carried out Threat Analysis in the two states, while some personnel have been deployed in advance to deal with the identified threats. Mr. Adamu gave a breakdown of security personnel to be deployed with Bayelsa state, taking 31,041 security personnel, while 35, 200 will be deployed in Kogi State.
He said: “Nobody will be allowed to disrupt the election. INEC’s facilities will be protected. The collation centres and the polling units will be adequately manned, especially at the collation centres where the results are tallied and where we usually receive complaints of disruption. I have doubled the number of personnel that will be there to make sure that the right thing is done. The state INEC headquarters will be protected and even the local government area offices, the ward collation centres will be adequately protected. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), where the materials will be, will also be taken care of in terms of security.”
The menace of vote buying
Incidences of financial inducement of voters by political parties on election day constitute an encumbrance to free choice by the electorate during election. It was rife in the last governorship elections in Edo and Ondo state and during the last general elections.
The INEC chairman has consistently maintained that voter harassment, intimidation and vote buying were serious breaches of the Electoral Act and assured that his Commission was determined to stop it.
At a quarterly consultative meeting with political parties held penultimate week, he revealed that two anti corruption agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) would monitor the movement of cash during the campaigns and on the election day.
He said all the commission’s officials and ad-hoc staff would be made to take an oath of neutrality before taking part in the electoral process.
“Electioneering campaigns have already begun, the appeal of the commission, once again, to political parties is to speak to your candidates and supporters and to advise them against hate speech, inciting statements, physical attacks on opponents, destruction of each other’s’ campaign materials and other sundry violations of the Electoral Act.
“Of course, voter harassment, voter intimidation, including vote buying at polling units, constitutes violations of the Electoral Act. Prohibition of the use of mobile phones by voters in the voting cubicles is still in force. We are going to deepen our collaboration with the EFCC and the ICPC in this respect. They will keep eyes on the movement of cash during electioneering campaigns and on election day,” he said.
No electronic transmission of results….?
Unlike in previous isolated elections before the 2019 general elections where it experimented with electronic transmission of results, the Commission has foreclosed it in the coming exercise in Bayelsa and Kogi.
At an interactive session on election collation process in Nigerian elections organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja, the Kogi state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor James Spam, ruled out the possibility of electronic transmission.
He called on the political parties to push for the amendment of the Electoral Act to enforce the electronic transmission of results in subsequent elections in the country.
The INEC chairman at a different forum has since assured newsmen and observers of unimpeded access to collation centres in Kogi and Bayelsa state.
He gave the assurance last week at an interactive session with top media executives in Abuja.
The SDP conundrum
A Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, ordered the INEC to restore Mrs. Natasha Akpoti of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as a candidate in the forthcoming election in Kogi State.
INEC had excluded the SDP candidate, Mrs Akpoti, from the ballot, based on its claim that the party failed to meet up with the electoral body deadline for substitution of candidates, having disqualified her running mate, Khalid Ogbeche, as underage and consequently ineligible to contest.
Findings by Sunday Tribune revealed that eight nominations were declared invalid in Kogi State for the November 16 election, while six suffered similar fate in Bayelsa State.
Akpoti has since alleged that her nomination was axed by INEC to ensure victory for the incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Yahaya Bello. She further alleged that INEC allowed underage persons to contest the 2019 general elections and wondered why it was moving against them now.
Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, in her ruling, held that INEC acted above the law by refusing to accept the party and its candidate for the poll.
She ruled that INEC had no power to disqualify any candidate for an election without the backing of a court order.
She ordered the commission to put the SDP logo on the ballot papers to be used for the election.
Will INEC put the SDP on the ballot or appeal the judgment? Mrs. Akpoti has an herculean task of mobilising her party supporters for campaigns, few days to the Kogi election. INEC needs to convince the SDP faithful that the political space and Saturday process has not been skewed against its candidate.