•Let there be peace, and let the best candidate win
Voters in Ondo State are heading out tomorrow, Saturday, November 16, in an off-cycle poll to elect the person they would want to take office when a new governorship tenure kicks in on February 24, next year.
Ondo became one of the eight states that have fallen off the regular election cycle following a Court of Appeal verdict in February 2009 that upheld the petition tribunal’s invalidation of the emergence of Dr. Olusegun Agagu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2007 governorship poll, and affirmation of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party as duly elected. Besides Ondo, other states that are off-cycle in their governorship elections are Bayelsa, Imo, Kogi, Ekiti, Osun, Anambra and Edo.
Tomorrow’s election will hold in 3,933 polling units located in 203 wards across Ondo’s 18 local government areas. Although there are 2,053,061 registered voters on the roll of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the state, only 1,757,205 who picked up their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from the electoral body are eligible to vote tomorrow. Of existing 19 registered political parties, 18 are fielding candidates for the poll, although it is widely seen as a two-horse race between incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Dr. Agboola Ajayi of the PDP.
Both INEC and the security services have indicated they are deploying massively for the election, besides other relevant agencies that will be involved. The electoral body will post 15,732 ad-hoc staff on electoral tasks across the 3,933 polling units, and that is not mentioning scores of other officials who will be on duty beat. The agency accredited more than a hundred domestic and international organisations that will deploy some 3,500 observers, besides more than 100 media outfits that are assigning some 700 accredited personnel on election coverage.
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On its part, the Nigeria Police said it would deploy 36,637 personnel from various specialised units, including the Special Intervention Squad, Police Mobile Force and Counter-Terrorism Unit for the election. It will also be working in concert with other security services like the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) that announced it would put 6,000 officers and men on election duty. Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun ordered a ban on all vehicular movement on roads, waterways and other modes of transportation from 6a.m. to 6p.m. within Ondo State territory on election day, with exemption for essential services like ambulances, fire services and accredited media personnel.
It is a shame that conducting elections in our clime is like going to war, unlike in other climes where elections are utterly non-disruptive of the daily run of events. But that is the reality we face. At the signing of a peace accord by political parties and their candidates in Akure, the Ondo capital, last weekend, Chairman of the National Peace Committee and former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, urged party leaders and candidates to accept the poll outcome once it is adjudged free, fair and credible, and to seek legitimate and peaceful means of addressing any concern that may arise thereafter. “I want to call on all stakeholders to work assiduously in their capacities to ensure that peace reigns supreme during this election, and that the Ondo State off-cycle election sets a precedent for other off-cycle elections to emulate,” he said.
INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu said the commission had perfected its plans to deploy staff and materials timely to all voting and results collation locations across the state, including those in the riverine areas. “I will not be tired of appealing to political parties and candidates to note that your signatures on the peace accord document alone will not guarantee a peaceful election. The peace accord is not an automated, self-activating document. Your commitment to its implementation is critical. Therefore, as you sign the peace accord, you should commit yourselves to its implementation and pass the message to your supporters at all levels for compliance,” he added.
We join our voice to the call for a peaceful election in the ‘Sunshine State’ tomorrow. It is noteworthy and laudable that unlike past elections in Ondo that were heralded by violence or its rhetoric, electioneering leading up to tomorrow’s poll has been uniquely tempered. This should be carried forward into the election proper and its aftermath.
All eyes will be on INEC to live up to its promise that there would be significant improvement in three areas: namely voter accreditation with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System device, timely deployment of poll officials and materials (logistics), and the result management process pertaining to uploading results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal. Voters themselves need to be well behaved and should spurn inducement to vote-selling. But they can be helped greatly onto such comportment by confidence-boosting processes of INEC. Let the people freely choose and let that choice be honoured.
