INEC: From Inconclusive Polls To Postponement

September 9, 2016 9News Nigeria Editorial, Hot News, Politics 0

Felix Nwaneri reports on the twist and turns in the Edo State governorship election earlier scheduled to hold this Saturday, September 10, but has been postponed to Wednesday, September 28

Yesterday’s postponement of Edo State governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after insisting earlier that it would go ahead with the poll against the advice of security agencies has added another twist to the bug of inconclusive elections that have rocked the commission since the inception of its new management under the leadership of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

The Nigeria Police and Department of State Services (DSS) had on Wednesday, advised the electoral umpire to postpone the poll scheduled for Saturday, September 10 on the ground of what they described as credible intelligence at their disposal, which suggests that insurgents are planning to attack vulnerable communities and soft targets, with high population during the forthcoming Sallah celebrations between September 12 and 13. But INEC, earlier yesterday, insisted that it will go on with the election as scheduled in all the 192 wards and 18 local government areas of the state.

The commission’s chairman, Yakubu, said the decision was reached after due consultations with the various security agencies, which assured of adequate and formidable security before, during and after the poll.

Yakubu, who spoke through INEC’s National Commissioner on Voter Education and Publicity, Prince Solomon Soyebi, said: “After intensive and wide consultations with the various security agencies who have assure us of their readiness to provide us with adequate security before, during and after election, we are left with no choice than to go on with the Saturday’s governorship election in the state.” But in a twist, the commission later agreed to shift the election by two weeks.

The decision to postpone the election was reached at a security meeting held in Benin, the Edo State capital. Yesterday’s development swells incidences of inconclusive polls under Yakubu’s headship of INEC, which most stakeholders have persistently described as a worrisome development which must be curbed to avoid eroding the gains so far recorded in the country’s electoral process.

Kogi experience

Though inconclusive poll is not new in the Nigeria’s electoral process, it has become more pronounced under the present INEC management. It started with the November 2015 Kogi State governorship election, where the electoral body had to declare the poll inconclusive following the death of All Progressives Congress (APC) initial candidate in, Abubakar Audu, at a time he was coasting to victory.

The electoral umpire’s action almost triggered a constitutional crisis as the 1999 Constitution (as amended) did not envisage such situation. But the impasse was resolved when INEC directed the APC to nominate another candidate as Audu’s substitution for the supplementary poll in the 91 polling units, where elections were cancelled.

Audu was at the time leading his closest rival and then incumbent governor, Idris Wada, by 41, 000 votes, whereas the total number of registered voters in the 91 polling units was 49,953, a figure, the commission explained was higher than the margin between the top contenders.

But the window to substitute Audu, rather than serve as a relief to the APC, sparked off another round of crisis as the deputy governorship candidate, Hon. James Faleke, wrote to INEC that he should be declared winner on the ground that the supplementary poll was needless.

His argument was that the number of eligible voters in the affected areas stood at 25, 000 and so will not make any impact in the overall result. The PDP, on its part, urged the electoral body to declare its candidate –Wada, winner of the election as the votes garnered by Audu were not transferable. According to the party, Audu’s votes died with him.

When INEC insisted on going ahead with the supplementary poll, the APC was left with no other option than nominated the first runner up in its governorship primaries, Yahaya Bello as Audu’s substitute and he was declared winner at the conclusion of the election. As expected, the outcome of the election is currently being contested at the election petition tribunal by Faleke and Wada.

Bayelsa debacle

The December 5, 2015 Bayelsa poll had voting in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state shifted to the next day as armed thugs disrupted distribution of election materials in the council on election day. The rescheduled poll, however, suffered several hitches and had to be cancelled, thereby re-enacting the Kogi inconclusive scenario.

Widespread violence, which prevented conduct of the election in the local government on December 5, persisted the next day despite deployment of more security personnel. Declaring the poll inclusive, INEC said Southern Ijaw’s120,827 registered voters would be the decider being the largest of the eight local government areas of the state.

Governor Seriake Dickson of the PDP was then leading in six of the seven local government areas of the state declared by INEC. He polled 105,748 votes, while his closest rival, a former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva of the APC won in only one and had 72, 594 votes. The impasse was resolved after Dickson won the January 9 rescheduled poll. But like the Kogi experience, the loser – Sylva is also at the tribunal challenging the outcome of the election.

Rivers still hanging

Like in Kogi and Bayelsa states, the March 19 national and state Assembly rerun elections in Rivers State, also ended on inconclusive note as INEC had to suspended  elections in all constituencies in the state midway into the exercise.

The commission said it ordered the suspension, pending the receipt of a comprehensive report from its field officials and monitors. It had earlier cancelled election in eight local councils in the state because of violence.

Stating reasons for the decision, INEC’s Director in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, OluwoleOsaze-Uzzi, said: “Rather unfortunately, some of these elections witnessed the disruption of the process, including the barricading of some of the INEC local government offices and Registration Area Centres (RACs) used for the distribution of electoral materials which led to the late commencement of the exercise in some places and consequently, its smooth take off.

“Of more serious concern was the level of threats, violence and intimidation of election officials and voters by well-armed thugs and miscreants allegedly acting on behalf of some politicians, which marred the elections in some areas.”

While the commission later released results of some of the federal and state constituencies, it is yet to conduct fresh reruns in any of the three senatorial districts of the states.

Same story in FCT council poll

The story was the same in the recent FCT council election on April 9. The electoral commission declared four out of the six chairmanship positions inconclusive. The four Area Councils were Abaji, Gwagwalada, Abuja Municipal and Kuje.The other Area Councils where elections were conducted are Bwari and Kwali. The poll was later rescheduled for Wednesday April 14 in 39 polling units in 20 registration areas of the capital city. Results from the affected polling units were cancelled for reasons ranging from violence, over voting and non-use of card readers for accreditation of voters. The exercise has been concluded and winners declared.

Yet in Osun

The Ife Central State Constituency ofOsun State rerun, which held also held April 9, was declared inconclusive before it was resolved the next day – Sunday April 10. The Returning Officer, Dr. Francis Oladimeji, who made the announcement after the collation of results from the 11 wards in the state constituency, said the result could not be declared because of the violence which led to the disruption of collation at two polling units. Consequently, a fresh election was ordered in the two affected polling units – Agbedegbede and Moore Ojaja, both in Ward 3 of the constituency to resolve the stalemate.

Imo North not left out

The gale of inconclusive elections continued when INEC equally declared the Imo North Senatorial rerun conducted on July 23, inconclusive. Also declared inconclusive were the results of Oru East and Isiala Mbano state constituencies following reported cases of shootings, which characterised the exercise in some communities in the two affected areas.

The commission’s Returning Officer, Prof. Arinze Agbogu, while declaring the poll inconclusive, announced that Ben Uwajumogu, APC candidate, polled 48,921, while PDP’s Athan Achonu scored 40,142 votes to emerge second in the already declared result. Agbogu explained that the exercise was cancelled in 15 polling units with a total of 13,000 registered voters.

According to him, the difference between the candidate with the highest score and the second stood at 8,777 votes. The standoff was resolved a week later after election took place in the polling units where voting were cancelled with APC candidate emerging the winner.

INEC’s defence

Despite the worry over the spate of inconclusive elections, Chairman of INEC, Yakubu, is of the view that the inconclusive polls conducted under his tenure is a reflection of the competitiveness of the elections. Speaking with journalists recently in Lagos, Yakubu said: “There is no tradition of inconclusive elections in INEC. What is an inconclusive election? It is an election in which a winner did not emerged from the first ballot. Therefore, what do you do?

You conduct supplementary elections to conclude the elections. Is it strange? It is not. Is it happening for the first time? No it is not happening for the first time. In fact, take a head count, perhaps maybe few people can tell you when Nigeria recorded its first inconclusive election in recent democracy. You will recall that the first inconclusive election was in 1979, the election that brought Alhaji Shehu Shagari as president. Have you forgotten the mathematics of 19?

What is two-third of 19? Is it twelve and two-third or thirteen? Eventually that election was decided not by the then Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO). The court eventually determined the mathematics of two-third of 19.”

He also allayed fears over the development, saying: “In 2011, two governorship elections were inconclusive – my own state Bauchi because of post-election violence and Imo and they were concluded after two weeks.

Have we also forgotten Imo 2015? Taraba governorship was also inconclusive in 2015, but concluded thereafter. How about Anambra in 2013? I can also recall Chris Ngige and the late Dora Akunyili in the Senatorial election of 2011. It was inconclusive but concluded later. So, there have been inconclusive elections but at the time they occurred, they occurred in the context of the general elections, so we hardly noticed that the elections were inconclusive.

“I also wish to say that something happened in 2015 but was not taken into cognizance of. Number one, we have strong political parties that have evolved but were not decreed by the government of the day. While you have two strong political parties fielding strong candidates, you are unlikely to have landslide in an election. Check the results of the last presidential election, the person declared winner won by the closest margin since 1999 – 2.5 million votes.

So, we have strong parties fielding strong candidates. In Kogi, it was a contest between an incumbent governor and a former governor. In Bayelsa, it was a contest between an incumbent governor and a former governor.

“Secondly, the elections are getting better. Are we where we all hope for? Not yet, but we are itching closer. Are the votes counting because this has also been the kind prayers by Nigerians that God takes us to the place where the votes we actually cast at the polling units will determine who wins or who loses in an election.

The votes are increasingly counting. In one of the states, which had its governorship election long time ago, four years earlier; the margin of victory between the candidate declared winner and the runner up was over 400,000 votes. When we conducted the supplementary election to conclude the governorship election in January this year, that margin shrank with a little about 40,000.

So, it is 10 per cent of the previous margin. This is how competitive our elections have become. And look at the pattern worldwide, the percentage of turnout in Nigeria is actually like the percentage of turnout globally. So, we are taking a giant step in the consolidation of our democracy.

But in doing that, we are not going to, as I keep saying, press the panic button. “We will never conclude elections outside the provisions of the constitution, the Electoral Act and our guidelines. If we are going to be criticized for that one, we will take the criticisms but sacrifice has to be made for our democratic systems to work and we are committed to making the sacrifice.

As I said earlier, nobody executes the permission of conducting or concluding any election. In all the inconclusive elections, the major cause is violence. And the level of violence determines the speed with which we are able to mobilise to go back and conclude the elections.

It is not right for the commission not to conclude elections but it is only important to protect the sanctity of the ballot. “We will never declare a winner just for the sake of concluding elections. We will continue to ensure that we protect the sanctity of the votes.

The responsibility to uphold our democracy belongs to all of us, so let us not assume that it is only the electoral commission. It is our collective responsibility as a people and as a nation. Party responsibilities are outside the powers of the commission. The commission cannot secure the environment for free and fair elections. So, we also need the integrity of all, including the political actors to make sure we play by the rules and not do or die politics. For as long as that is the case, elections will be disrupted.

And once elections are disrupted, we apply the laws. When we apply the laws, it may lead to some instance, inconclusiveness because we need to make sure that Nigerians get value for our democracy.”

No doubt, INEC is on the side of the law on the various actions it has taken so far, there is no disputing the fact that the task ahead is a no mean one, which explains why it head – Prof. Yakubu, a respected academic has to rise to the occasion and deliver free and fair elections, as the people of Edo State patiently waits for the new date – Wednesday, November 28 – to elect their new governor.

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