The Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Akin Orebiyi, explained yesterday why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decided to conduct a supplementary poll in Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency.
Orebiyi said INEC rejected calls to declare Mr. Kolade Akinjo of the Labour Party (LP) winner of the by-election in the constituency, which was declared inconclusive, to dissuade politicians from using unacceptable means to “get results and win elections”.
Speaking on a Channels TV programme, “Sunrise”, he said INEC followed the Electoral Act’s guidelines in all its decisions on the by-election, adding that politicians have remained major obstacles to the conduct of free and fair elections.
Orebiyi said politicians often introduce criminal ideas during elections to cause chaos in areas where they are unpopular, so that elections would be cancelled there.
He said about 28,852 eligible voters could not vote, adding that the margin of votes between the candidate with the highest number of votes and the first runner up second is less that 1,300.
The REC said if 30 per cent of the electorate deprived from voting exercised their franchise, the overall result might have changed.
He explained that election materials meant for Arogbo Ward Two were not hijacked by militants as was widely reported, but the electoral officers were stopped from going to polling units by militants.
On single majority votes, Orebiyi said, the condition given by the Electoral Act for the declaration of a winner in a governorship election is different from that of the National or State Assembly poll.
He said the Electoral Act states that a winner can only be declared when results from all the polling units have been collated, adding that a clause in the Act says “where you could not conduct an election you are not expect to declare a winner, until election is conducted in that or those polling units”.
Orebiyi said: “There is no particular problem when we say an election is inconclusive; it is just that we could not declare a winner because the margin of votes between the leading candidate and the next candidate is smaller than the total number of registered voters, who did not have the opportunity to cast their votes on the election day.
“What happened is that there were places where election could not hold because politicians went on board with violence. For example, if your ballot materials have been stolen, INEC is to cancel election there. If thugs invade a polling station and polling officials were disturbed from performing their functions, we will not record any result in such unit.
“As such, it was not possible to have results in units and wards where such things occurred. When you add the number of voters in such units and the number is more than the margin between the leading candidate and the second runner up, a winner cannot be declared.
“The number of voters who could not vote is 28,852 and the margin of votes between the leading and second candidate is less that 1,300. This implies that if 30 per cent of those who could not vote on that day had voted, the result might have been different.
“The intention of that particular guideline of INEC is to dissuade politicians who will want to employ an illegal means to get result and win election.
“There is nothing wrong with INEC, but politicians who involve in wrong doing. I have been in Ondo State for three years now. I conducted the 2011 elections, the 2012 governorship poll and this one. If we compare the three, this will be the best so far. We were at every polling unit before 8am.
“On logistics, INEC was on top of the situation. At Arugbo Two, for example, my men were about to move as early as 5am, but they were prevented from moving out of the registration camp by militants.
“I got an SOS and phoned security agencies. Many people came around to talk to the militants, who said they have not benefited from the amnesty programme. The materials were not hijacked. My men were not armed and there was nothing they could do. The militants said they had a grudge with the government and we ensured that the situation did not result into violence.
“When the election was over, they told my people to write that no election took place in the ward. They knew what they were doing. Their action was calculated.”
Orebiyi said he would meet with stakeholders on the supplementary poll and fix a day for it.
He hailed security operatives for doing “a good job” during the poll.
