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Tag: polling units

  • PDP insists on results from polling units, alleges plots to alter election results

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has insisted on the official release of results already delivered at the various polling units for its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

    A statement last night by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, cautioned that any figure, except what was declared and collated from the polling units, would not be accepted.

    The PDP further alleged that the Buhari Presidency has been mounting pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and dispatching officials to change results in Rivers, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Kogi, Bauchi, Cross River, Borno, Yobe and Edo states among others, in a frenzy to allocate fictitious figures for President Buhari.

    It said: “Pathetically, the Buhari Presidency is also threatening the Southeast state governors to change results and carve a 25 per cent for Mr. President, a scheme that has already failed.

    “In Bauchi state, we are aware of the plots to move thump-printed ballot papers and fabricated results from Bauchi to Dass Local Government Area to upturn PDP’s victory in the results already delivered and announced at the polling units in the area.

    “This is why the electoral officials have been delaying moving the results for final collation and announcement. If this plot fails, the APC plans to void the results for Dass.

    “In spite of all these, our party assures Nigerians that the hope for a new government led by Atiku Abubakar, is already manifest.”

    “Our agents and indeed, Nigerians, already have the results as delivered at the polling units and are not ready to accept anything to the contrary. President Buhari and the APC should therefore quietly come to terms with the fact that they have been defeated.

    “The PDP therefore cautions INEC to respect the laws and electoral guidelines by upholding and declaring results from the polling units as expressed by Nigerians on Saturday.”

  • Vote buying: INEC to re-administer polling units

    •New parties get certificates

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will re-administer its polling units to prevent vote buying, INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said yesterday.

    He spoke during the presentation of Certificates of Registration to the 23 newly registered political parties at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

    Yakubu said the new polling unit structure would make it difficult for voters to display their ballot papers after marking them.

    “The commission is deeply worried about our elections, particularly the way they are becoming increasingly monetised.

    “Vote buying is a cancer to our elections and we must work together collectively to stamp it out.

    “Accordingly, and on the part of the commission starting with Osun State Governorship Election coming up on Sept. 22, we will change the way our polling units are administered.

    “It will be done in such a way that there will be no room for voters to expose their marked ballot papers between voting cubicles and the ballot boxes.

    “We shall further re-strategise with the security agencies for a more robust response to the arrest and prosecution of vote buyers.

    “We will also engage with all well-meaning groups for more effective voter education and voter sensitisation.’’

    Yakubu said the commission had concluded arrangements to publish the notice for the 2019 general elections to kick-off activities.

    “The formal commencement of 2019 general elections begins tomorrow, Friday Aug. 17, 2018, with the publication of Notice of Elections.

    “Already, the commission has concluded arrangements for doing so in all our offices nationwide as required by law.

    “This will be followed by the conduct of primaries beginning from Saturday, Aug. 18 to Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018.’’

    Congratulating the 23 newly-registered parties, the INEC chairman said they could participate in the 2019 general elections, but not in the Osun governorship poll as the nomination process had closed.

    “From today, you have equal status with any political party in Nigeria. This means that you can sponsor candidates for elections, including the 2019 general elections.

    Yakubu said that the new parties had an obligation to respect their constitutions, members, abide by INEC guidelines and regulations, obey the Electoral Act and submit themselves to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “2019 General Election is only 183 days way from today.

    “You should try and make a difference to politics and elective representation by conducting open, transparent, inclusive and peaceful primaries for the nomination of credible candidates for the elections.

    “By doing so, you will give Nigerians greater choice, thereby adding value to our democracy and strengthening the quality of elective representatives,’’ Yakubu said.

    Speaking on behalf of the new parties National Chairman of the African Action Congress Party, (AACP) Omoyele Sowore pledged that the new parties would bring changes to Nigeria’s democracy as well as rescue the country from the state of hopelessness.

    Sowore urged the new parties to form a united forum that would develop the country’s democracy and defeat the old order.

    “Nigerians need us badly; they need our commitment, conscience and most importantly our will to defeat the old order,’’ Sowore said.

    Also yesterday, INEC directed political parties to update their membership registers and furnish the Commission with the updated register.

    It warned against submission of names of people who did not participate in the primary as candidates.

    Speaking at the 2018 annual Nigeria political parties Summit in Abuja, INEC National Commissioner in charge of political party monitoring, Prof. Anthonia Okoosi-Simbine, said parties have till September 15 to inform the commission of the proposed date for their primaries at all levels.

    Prof Okoosi-Simbine added that peaceful election must begin with the conduct of transparent political party primaries, adding that “it has become increasingly obvious that Internal conflicts in political parties revolve around the contest for leadership positions and/or nominations to contest elective positions.”

    He said INEC would monitor political parties primaries

    Former INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega urged parties to build a strong democratic culture. He was chairman of the session.

  • Tinubu, wife, Fashola, Ambode, Adebule win at Polling Units

    Candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the Governorship and House of Assembly elections in the units of National Leader of the party, Alausa, Ikeja and Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State in Surulere, emerged winners with landslide victory.

    Governorship polls result at Tinubu’s Polling Unit 047, Sunday Adigun Street, Alausa, Ikeja, shows; APC polled 230 to PDP’s 62.

    Results for the House of Assembly is APC (233), PDP 60

    The total number of registered voters is 1,388; the total number of accredited voters is 295 while the total number of vote cast is 293.

    At Fashola’s ward G3, Unit 002, State Senior Grammar School, Itolo, Surulere, the APC governorship candidate scored 270 to PDP’s 132. There were 11 voided votes.

    APC governorship candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode in his ward 3 Epe, polled 133 to PDP’s 57.

    Ambode’s running mate Dr Idiat Adebule at Iba defeated PDP by 197 to 180 votes in the governorship poll. She also polled 197 for APC to defeat PDP with 176.

    Lagos Central Senator Remi Tinubu won her polling unit. Ward 09 PU34, Bourdillon: Governorship APC – 99; PDP – 24 Assembly APC – 91; PDP – 31.

  • Who is afraid of new Polling Units?

    SIR: I am compelled to pose the above query in the light of the controversies and barrage of criticisms trailing the proposed creation of additional 30, 000 Polling Units by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) bringing the number of Polling Units in the country to approximately 150, 000 . These criticisms are not constructive; they are deeply rooted in tribalism, religious bigotry and political sentiments. We need to rise above it.

    Leading the campaign against the commission’s proposal is the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly headed by the controversial Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark. Beyond flashing to our face the marginalisation claim, the group and its allies have not been able to support their assertions with verifiable facts or proofs. The group’s call for the removal of the INEC boss, Prof. Attahiru Jega over what they termed “promoting of northern agenda” is hollow, outrightly premature and cheap blackmail aimed at arm-twisting the INEC boss to dance to their tunes, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, none of these individuals criticising the initiative has been able to controvert the fact that the designated places in the northern region of the country, indeed, deserve the new Polling Units.

    Meanwhile, a glimpse at the planned exercise shows Lagos and Kano states taking the lion shares with 2,980 and 2,053 additional units respectively. While Bayelsa with the lowest registered voters in the country of 590,679 got 121 units. The truth, therefore, is that every state, as it were, is to be allotted polling units in equal proportion to the strength of its registered voters. The dust being raised by some of these groups that their regions are being short-changed in the exercise is nothing but a Nigerian factor where every national issue is brought on the table of politics and ethnicity.

    It is important to note that the electoral umpire has not acted ultra vires in the circumstance, especially,  in view of Section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2011 (As Amended). The said provision captures the power of the body to so act in the following words; “The Commission shall establish sufficient number of Polling stations in each ward and shall allot voters in such Polling Stations”. Assuming (without conceding) the critics of the proposed exercise had established their claim against the electoral body, the commission can still not be said to have violated the provisions of the law. The reason is that the Act does not stipulate the number of units to be allotted to each state. The discretion in doing so remains the exclusive power of the commission and it appeared to have exercised this discretion fairly and justly in the foregoing circumstance.

    Rather than pooh-pooh the proposed exercise, Nigerians should rally behind the commission in her quest towards finding a lasting solution to electoral ills in our system. The 2015 election is too crucial for us as a nation to be hijacked by some of these tribal and religious bigots in the garb of elder-statesmen and political analysts.

     

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

     Ebonyi State.

  • INEC yet to create additional polling units

    The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega has said the commission is yet to create additional polling units (PUs).

    Jega in a statement explained that the commission had only approved the framework and guidelines to facilitate the creation of additional 30,027 polling units by the Resident Electoral Commissioner and the INEC State offices.

    Refuting alleged disproportion in the distribution of the polling units, Jega said “the need factor” more than political sentiments informed the pattern of distribution of the Pus that we are creating.

    He said “the Commission took the view that no state should lose any polling unit as a result of this exercise because it would be unrealistic to reduce the number of polling units from any state, notwithstanding the fact they had exceeded their numbers. Thus these states were allowed to retain their excess polling units”.

    The Commission, he said, went on to give further relief to such states by providing that 15 per cent of the 30,027 additional polling units be distributed equally across all states, including the states that had already exceeded their numbers’

    “This s in the spirit that each state have, no matter how small,some additional polling unitsduring this exercise, in order to cater for new settlements, due to demographic shifts. As a result, even the states that had exceeded their numbers, received additional 121 polling units over and abovetheir retained excess.

    “The motive of INEC in restructuring the existing polling units and creating more is sincere and well intentioned. The Commission implores all Nigerians to set aside primordial sentiments and view the exercise with dispassion and patriotism, taking into account the lofty objectives that the new structure of polling units is intended to achieve.”

  • Accord, SDP criticise INEC for new polling units

    Accord, SDP criticise INEC for new polling units

    The National Secretary of Accord Party (AP), Samson Isibor, and a national leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Frank Ukonga, have opposed the new polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    They alleged that the exercise favoured the North.

    The two parties threatened to sue the commission for what they called a lopsided creation of the polling units.

    Ukonga, a presidential aspirant of the SDP, said his party and some others rejected the new units.

    He alleged that it was a plan to manipulate next year’s elections.

    According to him, the exercise may be a ploy for the North to continue to dominate the South in the post-Goodluck Jonathan era.

    Ukonga said: “If 500 voters per unit is the yardstick, it would have inadvertently tilted the balance to over 20 million voters for the North against only 4 million voters for the South.

    “This is a sort of constitutionally institutionalised stratagem to always produce the President from the North after the post-Jonathan era. This is not acceptable to Southern stakeholders in the political turfs.

    “We reject it and we are calling on INEC to cancel it. There is no basis for this creation at all.

    “From the screening of voters’ register, it has shown that our actual voting population is down by almost 20 million and a chunk of this differential is from North. So, why give the area more polling units where there would not be voters? What then happens to the voting materials already produced?”

    Isibor wondered why INEC should release the new polling units “on the eve of the 2015 general elections”.

    He added: “They (INEC leaders) should have called a stakeholders’ meeting. How did they arrive at the delineation? It is a plot to further marginalise some parts of the country. We will go to court to challenge it because there is no basis for what they have done. It is a grand design to rig elections in favour of certain sections of the country.

  • Furore over INEC’s new polling units

    Furore over INEC’s new polling units

    It is meant to shorten queues and smoothen elections.

    But the allocation of the newly created 30,027 polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2015 election is causing a big row.

    The electoral agency last week announced its plan, which will increase the total number of polling units nationwide to 150,000.

    The North got 70 per cent of the new units.

    Southeast Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders cried out yesterday that the region had been shortchanged.

    A member of Delta PDP Col. Joseph Achuzia, described INEC’s decision as illogical.

    The Southeast zone also rejected the promotion announced by the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the Inspector General of Police. It alleged that the promotion did not promote unity.

    The region spoke after a meeting of some of its governors, some ministers and political leaders at the Government House in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.

    Governor Theodore Orji, who is the chair of Southeast Governors’ Forum, hosted the meeting.

    Apart from Orji, the meeting was attended by Ebonyi State Governor Martin Elechi, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, the Ministers of Labour (Emeka Wogu), Health (Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu) and Aviation (Mr. Osita Chidoka) and the five state chairmen of the PDP.

    PDP National Publicity Secretary Olisa Metuh told reporters that a situation where the southern part of the country is allocated 8,000 polling units and 21,000 to the North is a great disservice to Nigeria’s unity.

    Metuh said: “The people of Southeast PDP reject entirely the alleged allocation of polling booths by INEC; we view it as a great disservice to the unity and progress of this country if the entire South will have 8,000 polling booths and the North will have 21,000 polling booths.

    “We demand that this should be suspended forthwith as it is completely against the spirit of one Nigeria, the unity and progress of our dear country.”

    He said the meeting also resolved that the Inspector General of Police should revisit the recent appointments and promotions as it affects the zone.

    He said: “We are worried about the announcement of the postings and promotions in the Nigeria Police Force and we request the IG of police with the Police Service Commission to revisit these appointments and promotions with the view of properly balancing the positions.

    This country belongs to all Nigerians and the Southeast is a great contributor to the progress of this country and we demand our fair of the allocation”.

    Metu added: “We request that the registration of voters be extended, especially where we are having problem with the registration and the provision of the PVC.

    “The officers in charge are not adequate, the materials provided in terms of handling the situation on the ground require a bit of adjustment with the timing of the INEC. So we are demanding that the INEC extend the timing accordingly.”

    The meeting, however, praised the effort of the Federal Government in tackling the Ebola scourge.

    “We commend the President, especially the Minister of Health, our own Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, for the effort the Federal Government has taken in containing the Ebola scourge.

    The Southeast PDP identified with all the measures that the Federal Government has resolved to undertake in handling this grave matter of concern to the entire country”.

    The meeting also resolved to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s yet undeclared aspiration for President in 2015.

    It noted: “We are totally in support; we believe that this country in the past three and half years has witnessed great transformation and we want it to continue.”

    Col. Achuzia asked: “What is the rationale behind this move?” The inference from the INEC move, he added, is that majority of the voters in the country are in the North, whereas the cleaning up of the voter register done recently by INEC has belied that notion.

    Achuzia, a former secretary-general of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said he would rather wait for INEC to go ahead with the latest resolve, before making any further statement.

    “We would like to wait until it becomes a reality that INEC has done that, then it has to tell us the justification for establishing 70 per cent of the new polling units in the North. This is my position for now.”

    He said in the past, enumerators who registered voters in the North usually based their figures on estimates by virtue of being told that they are not allowed to get into certain places. “They always use it as an excuse. It didn’t start today.

    Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Bayo Dayo is worried about the lopsidedness in the distribution of the 30,000 additional polling units. He said: “Professor Attahiru Jega is an intelligent and honest man but if his honesty is not in the best interest of the Southwest, we will react and if need be, we will seek redress in the court.”

    Civil rights activist Comrade Moshood Erubami said it would be premature to fault INEC’s wisdom in the distribution of the additional polling units when we don’t know the criteria used.

    Afenifere chieftain Chief Supo Shonibare agreed that the distribution was lopsided. “I am not aware INEC is an authorised body on population census. If it is based on estimate, it is wrong to give a section of the country more polling units at the expense of the other,” he said.