The European Union Election Observer Mission that monitored the 2019 general elections has released its final report on the polls. The report has generated mixed reactions from stakeholders, Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI reports.
MIXED reactions have trailed the European Union Election Observers Mission’s report on the 2019 general elections, which stressed the need for urgent improvements in the electoral process. In the report, the Chief Observer, Maria Arena, highlighted some electoral issues and gave 30 recommendations to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The mission, which released its preliminary report in April, said the election was characterised by violence, underage voting, lesser women participation, biased media reportage, particularly by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and other state-owned media establishments and vote-buying. The report equally questioned INEC’s credibility.
It also stated that the suspension of former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mr. Walter Onnoghen, prior to the election, was questionable, adding that due process was not followed.
Arena said: “It was seen by many as undermining security of tenure, damaging judicial independence and compromising the division of powers. The suspension did not follow due process, was divisive, and undermined confidence in the electoral process and opportunity for remedy.
“The mission observed that questionable procedures were followed by the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The removal of the chief justice of Nigeria during the elections had an inhibiting effect on the judiciary. Very few electoral offences result in arrest or prosecution, and thus there is an enduring culture of impunity.”
However, it said the election recorded some improvements compared to past ones. “INEC made a number of improvements, including making electoral participation more accessible through simplified voting procedures. INEC made efforts to strengthen electoral integrity by issuing regulations making smart card readers mandatory to accredit voters, but there were insufficient accompanying transparency measures.
The report reads in part: “The systemic failings evident in the elections and the low levels of voter participation show the need for fundamental reform. Without this, there is a risk of unaccountable leadership and citizen disengagement. Such reform requires principled political leadership committed to the rights of Nigerian citizens and an inclusive process of national dialogue involving state institutions, parties, civil society, the media and other experts. This needs to be urgently undertaken to allow time for debate, legislative changes and implementation well in advance of the next elections.”
The Chief Observer also urged the authorities to put in place an electoral law that will guarantee direct transmission of results from the polling units to the headquarters of INEC.
The report suggests that there was a relatively low level of voter participation and that the major political parties were at fault in not preventing acts of violence and intimidation by their supporters. The key recommendations, Arena said, include the call to strengthen INEC procedures for the collation of results to improve integrity and confidence in electoral outcomes and the establishment of requirement in law for full results transparency, with data made easily accessible to the public.
Arena said: “Such reform needs political leadership that is dedicated to the rights of Nigerian citizens, and an inclusive process of national dialogue involving state institutions, parties, civil society and the media. This needs to be urgently undertaken to allow time for debate, legislative changes and implementation in advance of the next elections.” She, however, noted that the elections were competitive, because parties were able to campaign and that the participation of civil society organisations enhanced accountability.
Presidency spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu, welcomed the report, promising that government will analyse it fully and act on its recommendations in the best interest of the country. Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, noted that the EU observers were invited to the country by INEC and that the move was welcomed by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. He said the attitude of the commission, as well as that of the Federal Government were a clear indication of the administration’s good intentions, commitment to a purely democratic process and desire to improve on the next elections.
Shehu said: “The administration of President Buhari will work with all Nigerian citizens, state institutions, parties, civil society, the media and other experts to make sure that the improvements recommended by the EU are implemented, and that these areas of concern are addressed. It is noteworthy that INEC is in receipt of a number of recommendations that form a part of the EU report.
“The Presidency assures that the commission is in safe hands and happy that they are currently engaged in root and branch reviews of the 2019 general elections and will input lessons learned into its recommendations for electoral and constitutional reforms. We believe that the commission conducted a good election and will continue to improve on its processes and procedures.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also commended the EU. A statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, lauded the union for stating the facts on the elections, saying the fresh revelations of manipulation as detailed in the report further vindicates the position of the party and that of millions of Nigerians on the election.
Ologbondiyan said that the world could now see that the PDP had not been crying wolf in insisting that the election was outrightly rigged with the alleged cancellation of millions of PDP votes. He added: “Nigerians are still in shock over the revelations by EU of how about 2.8 million votes were deliberately ‘cancelled without sufficient accountability’ and how several returning officers gave no reason for the cancellations.”
He said more shocking was the distortions and “a large discrepancy of 1.66 million more registered voters, as announced by INEC on January 14, compared to those announced by state returning officers during the collation of presidential results.”
Similarly, the PDP vice presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, said Nigerians should learn some lessons from the report and ensure that future elections were conducted in the standard and international best practices. Obi described the report as a ‘vindication of a section of Nigerians’, who had raised issues on the outcome of the election.
A statement from his Media Office quoted him as saying that the recommendations contained in the report should be taken very seriously by Nigerians to ensure that necessary steps were taken for their implementation. The statement added: “I have always maintained that the process through which a person gets into an office is far more fundamental than what the person does thereafter in that office, because of the integrity of the office being occupied.”
One of the fringe political associations, the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) said the EU report is a major indictment on INEC and its officials. In a statement from its Acting National Chairman, Abiodun Bamigboye, and National Secretary, Chinedu Bosah, the SPN said the report suggested that INEC, security agencies and the two major parties manipulated the 2019 general elections.
The statement states in part: “We insist that INEC or another agency for that matter has no moral authority to seek to deregister any political party under the flimsy excuse of winning no seat at local government, state and Federal Government level. INEC has the responsibility to provide a level-playing field for political parties to vie for peoples votes without vote-buying, intimidation, violence, manipulations, heavy monetization, and other factors that marred the 2019 general elections. As the SPN has said before, the 2019 general elections were an expensively packaged charade and INEC, security agencies and the pro-rich political parties, especially the APC and the PDP, have to be blamed for this.”
The party said the reactions of the Presidency to the allegations are typical of the Buhari administration. It said: “As far as the SPN is concerned, this kind of superficial and face-saving response to what are weighty allegations that indict INEC, security agencies and ‘leading parties’ already shows that the Buhari government and the ruling elite is not serious about improving the conduct of elections either now or in the foreseeable future. Otherwise, the starting point ought to be to identify officials of INEC, security agencies and ‘leading’ political parties that the report claimed to have compromised the integrity of the 2019 elections through their actions and inactions and seek to investigate and prosecute them with a view to ensure deterrent.
“INEC itself need to be asked to justify how it utilized the huge billions of naira voted to it over the past four years to prepare for 2019 general elections, if at the end of the day, the exercise is found to suffer ‘severe operational and transparency shortcomings’. At the moment, there are nothing less than 799 cases at the election petition tribunal.
“As a key participant in the election, we are very sure from our experience that none of the manipulations that occurred in the 2019 general election could have taken place without the connivance of INEC officials and security agencies, especially those at the top echelons. But, so far, no top member of INEC, the police or the army is under investigation or being prosecuted for their roles in manipulating the elections. The EU report also found that at least 150 people were killed during the elections. This in itself shows that what took place across the country on February 23 and March 9, 2019 were brutal struggles between different factions of the capitalist ruling elite for political power and not a democratic exercise.”
Against this background, the SPN said it is prepared to initiate a mass campaign combining legal challenge and political mobilisations in collaboration with trade unions and civil society should INEC or the National Assembly dare to seek deregistration of any political party. It added: “We insist that without manipulations, monetization, vote-buying and outright rigging committed by the pro-rich parties and their accomplices in INEC and security agencies, a party like the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) stood a chance of performing better than it did.”
An Onitsha, Anambra State-based human rights watchdog, the International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (Intersociety), also lauded the EU report, but added that, like every social science research or investigation, it is not expected to be complete or full in its findings, without missing some important points.
In its statement signed by its Head of Publicity, Chidinma Udegbunam (Esq.), Head of Democracy & Good Governance, Chinwe Umeche (Esq.), and Chairman of the Board, Emeka Umeagbalasi, Intersociety said as thorough and commendable as the report is, some fundamental issues or areas are still left unaddressed. It said the polls were substantially below the international best standards.
The statement said: “For instance, the EU had in its final report noted that the governorship segment of the Nigeria’s 2019 polls was more hitch-free, open and fair than the presidential poll, yet the report did not answer the question of why the latter was so; which has to do with chronic ethno-religious divisions in the country, promoted by the country’s present political players.
“As a result, Intersociety has found the following missing points in the EU Report: Underage Voting: the EU report noted the underage voting during the polls, but failed to specifically mention which geopolitical zone or zones involved in the underage voting; how they got to be issued with PVCs, by who and the intent behind their capturing and certification to vote. “For instance, the EU Report was silent on whether it witnessed or not any incidence of underage voting in the Southeast, Southwest and South-south regions of Nigeria as well as non-Muslim areas of the North.
“Card Reader Failure: the EU Report noted the failure of card readers during the Polls but did not specifically state whether the Card Reader failure was recorded more in the Southern part of the country particularly Southeast and South-south than the Northern part particularly Northwest and Northeast or whether the electronic card readers failed across board throughout Nigeria.
“Uneven Use of Card Readers: the EU Report did not tell Nigerians and the world whether Card Readers were deployed and used across board in the whole of Nigeria’s 176,000 polling units, irrespective of the ethno-religious composition of each of the polling units and whether all the results arising from the 2019 Polls as announced by INEC emanated from the ‘faultless’ Card Readers only.
“Possible non-Card Reader generated results: the EU report did not specifically inform whether many, if not most results from the North particularly Northwest and Northeast were generated from Card Reader or non-Card Reader sources or manual/massive thump printing. For instance, were there massive thump printing and use of other non-Card Reader voting procedures in the Northwest and Northeast parts of the country as well as Muslim held areas of the North-central Nigeria?”
Intersociety called on international observers to expand their election observation or monitoring from “election observation” to “electoral process monitoring/observation”, because, in its view, the country’s electoral process (i.e. voter registration) is chronically disproportionate, divisive and sectional.
It added: “As it stands today, independently speaking, it is likely correct to say that 4.5 adult persons out of every five including the physically and visually challenged are captured as registered voters in the Muslim areas of the North, while as much as two adult persons out of every five are captured as registered voters in the Southeast, South-south and non-Muslim areas of the North, as well as the “non-Muslim areas” of the Southwest. That is to say that the number of registered voters in southern Nigeria is far below the number of the number of unregistered ones who are 18 years and above.”
