Transparent election is the collective responsibility of stakeholders, including the party leaders, flag bearers, electoral officers, security agencies and voters. But, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has a duty to organise the general elections without compromising ethics and sacrificing the rules of the game on the altar of partisanship. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU highlights the mistakes the electoral agency must avoid during the exercise.
ALL eyes are on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Atahiru Jega, as he pilots the electoral ship of state. Will the ship sail to the harbour safely? The wind is blowing. Electoral pirates are also on the prowl? Will the captain of the ship and the crew survive the turbulence? These are some of the questions agitating the minds of many as the general elections draw nearer.
Since pre-independence, elections have been a sort of nightmare. The polity is usually enveloped in anxiety during polls. The electoral battles have been fought in an atmosphere of strife, rancour and bitterness. In 1959, 1964, 1965, 179, 1983, 2003, 2007, and 2011, the electoral commissions have been under attack for flawed polls. Protests have always trailed the periodic contests, with the struggle shifting from the ballot box to the court rooms. Over 54 years after independence, Nigeria has failed to build a sane electoral process.
Many stakeholders have expressed reservations about the prospect of an improvement next month. Jega, who is on the weighing scale again, has reiterated his commitment to a credible process. But, there is a gap between expectation and reality. Although INEC had four years to prepare for this year’s general elections, many lapses are noticeable. The litmus test is the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) distribution. Owing to the mobilisation and enlightenment campaigns by civil society groups, political parties, many people trooped out for the exercise across the federation. But, the voter cards have remained elusive for some 30 million eligible voters. Prof Jega – the man on the spot – said on Tuesday that the electoral umpire has distributed 66.8 million PVCs.
The consensus of opinion nationwide is that the critical exercise was bungled. The shoddy distribution has generated uproar, created a hollow in the INEC’s scorecard. Opposition parties have alleged foul play. Some state governments have also threatened to take INEC to court. Many Nigerians, including Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), were shocked when they discovered that they were not captured. Jega and his men did not anticipate the scenario. To assuage public feelings, the commission resorted to an unplanned damage control. A supplementary exercise was ordered. But, public confidence has been ruptured. If the supplementary voter registration fails, the election may be discredited.
According to analysts, INEC cannot halt the pollution of the ballot box, if one man, one vote is not guaranteed. But, when a large number of people are excluded from voting due to INEC’s mistake, the disenfrancement is a disservice to democracy.
In 2011, the commission had thrown the bewildered nation into chaos before Jega directed that the election should stop abruptly. Midway into the poll, INEC was inundated with complaints across the six geo-political zones that the exercise had failed. At noon, voting had not started in many locations. The voter’s register was fake. Many officials did not even report for electoral duty. Where electoral officers were available, they were afraid to kick off the accreditation because security agents were absent. The ill-trained ad hoc staff – the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members were confused. Protests against the shoddy exercise were reported in some states. To avoid a crisis of monumental nature, Jega announced the cancellation and postponement of the poll. There was relief. But, the beleaguered nation was back to square one.
To observers, INEC has only built on its relative success and failure in post-2011 fractional and by-elections in Ondo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun. Instructively, the governorship elections were scattered, owing to the mistake of INEC under Prof. Maurice Iwu. The first challenge was the Anambra State governorship election, which was almost bungled last year. During the poll, the commission was under fire. Indeed, its poor performance heightened fears about future elections.
Ahead of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections on June 21 and August 9, there was also apprehension, although the polls turned out to be relatively peaceful. Civil society organisations demanded for the use of card readers to protect the sanctity of the ballot box. Reflecting in the public mood as the poll approached, the Coordinator of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), Mr. Ayo Opadokun, pointed out that the electoral anxiety underscored the obvious lack of confidence in the electoral agency. He said, if the candidates and voters have the assurance that INEC will conduct a credible poll, there will be less aggression and desperation.
Also, a cleric and politician, Pastor Tunde Bakare, distinguished between a free election and fraudulent election. He explained that while elections can be free at the level of voting and counting at the polling booths, they can be fraudulent at the level of collation of results at the collation centres. To avert the electoral fraud and the controversy it will trigger, the activist-priest admonished INEC to approach its duty with patriotism and sense of responsibility.
To conduct credible and transparent polls, INEC must be weary of its past mistakes and avoid the pitfalls, especially the “Anambra pitfalls”. This is necessary to avoid a fresh crisis of integrity. Indeed, prevention is better than cure. The commission tried to avoid these mistakes in Ondo, Ekiti and Osun polls. In the approaching general elections, they should not be repeated.
In many polling units in the Southeast state, there were no result sheets. Many voters cried foul, pointing out that the INEC was not well prepared for the exercise. The Commission also failed a credibility test when its officials reported late for the assignment in many local governments. Where the officials reported promptly, they did not show up with the required polling materials. Voters were disillusioned. Many returned home in protest. Later, the commission shifted the exercise in some units till the next day.
The most critical material is the voter register. When the names of many voters are omitted from the register, there will be tension on poll’s day. The implication is that many may be disenfranchised. The early display of the voter register may be helpful. Through the verification, complaints by candidates, parties and voters can be tackled and errors corrected by the commission before the poll.
Also, the accreditation hurdle is a recurring decimal. Voters usually raise objections to the late accreditation and voting. Accreditation problem is proportional to the demographic distribution of voters. In densely populated polling units, the exercise may not be completed before noon as stipulated by the law. If the electoral officers report late at their duty posts, the challenge may be compounded. The late arrival of polling officers and electoral materials can also worrisome. In 2011, many voters returned home without casting their ballot because their names were not found in the voter register. Unscrupulous electoral officers may also give INEC a bad name. In Anambra, Jega was enraged by the unruly behaviour of some polling officers. He had no alternative than to hand them over to the police for interrogation.
There is the need for the electoral body to study and understand the geography of the electoral constituencies. The coastal communities of Ilaje and Niger Delta creeks require specific preparations. Helicopters and speed boats may be needed to convey polling officers and materials to designated units. In Edo State, a drunkard was hired as a boat driver and there was a fatal accident.
Will elections hold in flashpoints like the Northeast where the out-of-control Boko Haram insurgents are on the rampage? Borno, Yobe and parts of Adamawa states have not known peace for almost three years. The states were under emergency rule for 18 months until the National Assembly declined to approve the extension of the emergency rule for another six months. The federal lawmakers justified their position as they said the emergency rule failed to restore sanity in the three states. Conducting an election in the troubled states may be challenging.
Elections have become a burden in Nigeria, owing to combative nature of gladiators who see elections as do-or-die contests. Thuggery and violence are on the increase. In fact, many security experts have warned that violence may mar the polls. How to police the votes is very important. Sometimes, elections are discredited, although the fault cannot be attributed to INEC. The activities of desperate politicians, thuggery, and the misuse of the police may make the contest a sort of war. Already, there is a charged atmosphere. It is in this regard that Jega’s policing strategy is salutary. The INEC boss said that security agents must be in their uniform. This is to avoid the use of thugs who pose as policemen in mufti to intimidate opponents.
However, civil rights groups have suggested that security agents should also be accredited for electoral duty. But, INEC has turned the suggestion down.
The greatest challenge is the prevention of rigging by INEC during the presidential, governorship and parliamentary elections. Muscle men-thugs and cultists, who are armed with sophisticated weapons beyond the reach of the police, may be recruited by desperate politicians to create panic, molest voters, scare away electorate, invade the polling booths, snatch ballot boxes, inflict pain, maim and kill, in the interest of the highest bidder and in expectation of a reward for unleashing terror. The INEC and security agents should not only be on guard, but on the red alert to avoid the floodgate of litigations that trailed the 2007 electoral foul play.
The penchant for doctoring the results by the combined forces of desperate politicians, unpatriotic security agents and electoral commissioners must be resisted. Ordinarily, a credible election is a panacea for violence. In earlier dispensations, rigging provoked popular revolt. In the Western Region of old, malpractices were perceived as a colossal rebellion against the people. It led to the burning of houses and mass killings in the First and Second Republics.
In previous elections, observers were arrested and briefly detained. On June 21, some journalists duly accredited by INEC in Ekiti State to cover the governorship election were arrested by over-zealous security operatives, who drove the men of the pen profession to the boundary of the Land of Honour State with Kwara. The reporters were warned never to return to the state. There should be a better way of accrediting and identifying the monitors, instead of subjecting them to ridicule while on sensitive national assignment.
Many electoral observers have wondered why the INEC is reluctant to invoke the various provisions in the constitution against electoral malpractices. Electoral officers who act in concert with politicians and the police to commit atrocities against the ballot box should be prosecuted. INEC must make the first move.
Recently, the commission acknowledged its limitations, in terms of speed and accuracy. Jega said the Commission is not equipped to conduct a run-off if there is a tie in the presidential election. The law stipulates that the re-run should be held within a week. But, Jega described the time allowed by the law as inadequate. This hurdle cannot be resolved without an amendment to the Electoral Act. The amendment is not feasible before the election.
Despite the INEC’s shortcomings, Jega is still perceived as a man of integrity. Will INEC under his watch live up to expectation? Time will tell.
