INEC: Will Ondo, Edo polls be different?
Stakeholders expect the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct credible governorship elections in Ondo and Edo states. Deputy Editor (Daily) EMMANUEL OLADESU examines the preparations for the exercise by the umpire.
The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been under fire over the alleged irregularities and violence that marred last year’s governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states. There were allegations of vote buying, disruptions in some areas and police brutality. The question is: will the Ondo and Edo governorship elections follow the trend?
To observers, stakeholders who committed the infractions were outside the control of the electoral agency.
The unruly behaviour attested to the inadequacies of the ‘electoral environment,’ characterised by desperation on the part of candidates, their parties and supporters.The pattern may continue, according to monitors, unless perpetrators are apprehended and brought to book.
Since the conduct of election is a collective duty involving stakeholders, including parties, candidates, security agencies and voters, any infraction or impunity by any of these stakeholders may create credibility crisis.
Electoral offences tribunal:
The INEC Commissioner on Voter’s education, Festus Okoye, lamented that the incidence of impunity is worrisome to the commission, which often made elaborate arrangement for the deployment of personnel and materials, only to contend with the antics of unscrupulous elements bent on scuttling the arrangements.
It appears that this particular challenge is associated with governorship elections. The best antidote to impunity, in his view, is the enforcement of sanctions under the existing laws without fear and favour. “Where offenders are not punished, bad behaviour is encouraged,” he said.
The proposed Electoral Offences Commission or Tribunal may stem the tide. Past panels on electoral reforms have made recommendations along this line.
For example, the report of the Babalakin Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO, 1986), the Uwais Report on Electoral Reform (2008), the Lemu Committee on Post-election Violence (2011) and the Ken Nnamani Committee on Constitutional and Electoral Reform (2017) suggested that a special court should try electoral offenders.
Also, the various administrative reports by INEC, investigation reports by the security agencies, including the Police and the Army, independent studies by the National Human Right Commission (2015 and 2017), the judgements of the various election petition tribunals, the reports of domestic and international observers, record of public hearing for the amendment of the electoral legal framework by the National Assembly and confessional statements by some political actors pointed to the inadequacies of the existing courts to handle electoral crime cases with speed.
Giving an insight into the commission’s move to push for special electoral offences tribunals, INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmud Yakubu’s media aide Rotimi Oyekanmi, said: “The commission will continue to work with the National Assembly and all stakeholders for the establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal as recommended by the Uwias, Lemu and Nnamani Committees.”
Steady electoral progress:
Since the advent of the Fourth Republic, the commission has conducted seven general elections; in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019). Conducting a general election in a vast county like Nigeria with a size of over 923,000 square kilometers, many difficult terrains and riverine communities pose significant logistical challenges.
In spite of these challenges, the agency has been striving at an improvement. Yakubu, who came on board in November 2015 tried to build on the gains of the general elections by embarking on innovations. He also planned meticulously for the 2019 general elections. Although there were momentary hitches on the eve of the poll, the challenge was later tackled.
In the last four years, INEC under Yakubu has tried to carry out its statutory functions in accordance with Section 153 (f) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Not all the functions can be performed with ease. It has been quite impossible for the agency to foster internal democracy within political parties as intra-party competitions are conducted in an atmosphere of strife and rancour.
Following a comprehensive review of its Strategic Plan 2012-2016, INEC has developed the 2017-2021 Strategic Plan. It is a pragmatic roadmap that serves as a practical, action-oriented guide and allows INEC staff to take ownership of the process and boost engagement with key stakeholders.
The objectives of the plan are provide electoral operations and infrastructure for credible polls, improve voter education, training and research, register parties and monitor their operations and interact nationally and internationally with relevant stakeholders;
Based on its Election Project Plan, last year’s general elections were conducted in 1,558 constituencies. The analysis is as follows: one presidential, 29 governorship, (seven governorship are off-season), 109 senatorial, 360 House of Representatives, 991 state and 68 Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory. There are 119,973 polling units across 774 Local Government Areas in 8,809 Registration Areas.
But, the off-season polls are also challenging. Before the general elections, the commission conducted 195 off season bye, re-run and end-of-tenure elections, including governorship polls in Kogi, Bayelsa, Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states. This, as Oyekanmi put it, enabled it to fine-tune its processes and procedures.
Prior to the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) carried out between April 27, 2017 and August 31, 2018, the total number of registered voters was 69,720,350.
But after the CVR was undertaken in all the 774 INEC Local Government Areas offices, INEC recorded 14,283,734 new registrants. The total number of registered now stands at 84,004,084. According to monitors, this is unprecedented. As the agency prepares for Ondo and Edo polls, the voter education has to be repeated and intensified ahead of the exercise.
Mushrooming of parties:
INEC with regard to the registration of new political parties. On poll day, the ballot paper is unusually long. For the 2015 general elections, there were 30 parties out of which 28 contested. Between 2015 and 2019, additional 91 parties came on board out of which 73 contested the 2019 general elections.
Also, one more political party has been registered after the general election, following a court order. The five parties registered in June 2017 were ADP, AGAP, APDA, NGP and YPP. The 21 parties registered in December 2017 were ABP, AGA, ANN, ANRP, CC, FJP, GPDN, JMPP, LPN, MAJA, MDP, NIP, NRM, NRM, NDCP, PANDEL, PT, PPC, RNP, RP and SNP. The 23 that were registered in August 2018 were AAP, ANDP, AAC, AUN, ASD, ANP, APM, APN, CNP, COP, LM, MRDD, NCMP, NFD, PCP, RAP, SNC, UP, UPC, WTPN, YES, YP, and ZLP.
Observer groups:
For last year’s elections, INEC monitored 29,607 party primaries; Presidential – seven; Governor – 853; Senate – 2,357; Reps 7,337 and State Assembly – 18, 990.
No fewer than 335 Observer Groups (OGs) applied for accreditation to observe the 2019 elections, made up of 293 Domestic and 42 Foreign. The Commission accredited 159 OGs (120 Domestic and 39 Foreign). They deployed 73,562 personnel out of which 71,256 were domestic and 2,306 foreign.
Out of the 71,256 Domestic Observers deployed, 51,320 were males and 19,936 females. Out of the 2,306 Foreign Observers deployed, 1,711 were males and 595 females.
However, 42 domestic observer groups have so far submitted reports on the 2019 general elections.
The Commission launched its Regulations for Voting by Internally Displaced Persons in December 2018 to give internally displaced qualified Nigerians, who were forced out of their homes due to natural disasters, insurgency and other conflicts the opportunity to vote.
As part of efforts to proactively provide the general public with up-to-date information about its activities and in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, INEC established, for the first time, an online newspaper- INECNEWS (www.inecnews.com) Since its debut in 2017, the newspaper has been reporting on the commission’s activities exclusively. The reports are being shared with the general public at regular intervals.
To foster youth participation, INEC partnered with the European Union and the European Centre for Electoral Support, within the framework of the European Union Support for Democratic Governance (EU-SDGN), to organise ‘Youth Votes Count Campus campaign.’
The programme was designed to encourage young people to register during the CVR and vote in elections. Several Nollywood stars made appearances during the campaign that took place on the campuses of six federal universities across six geo-political zones. The institutions include: UNILAG, UNN, UNIABUJA, UNIPORT, Moddibo Adama University of Technology, Yola and Bayero University, Kano.
The commission’s Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct elections will not alter as it prepares for the two governorship polls. Some of its key components include simultaneous accreditation and voting, pasting of Form EC60E or “People’s Result Sheet” at each polling unit after an election and compulsory use of the Smart Card Reader.
Lessons from Kogi, Bayelsa:
Does INEC deserves a pass mark in Kogi and Bayelsa? Adequate preparations were made, said Oyekanmi, who explained the steps taken to ensure free and fair polls. The commission initially released the timetable on April 9, last year. Following appeals, the date was shifted from November 2 to November 16.
Also, INEC combined the court-ordered Kogi West senatorial re-run and Brass I State Constituency supplementary election with the governorship elections. By combining the Kogi West poll with the Kogi governorship election, the commission saved N300 million that would have been spent, if the election had been conducted as a stand-alone.
INEC organized two stakeholders’ meetings in both Yenagoa (Bayelsa) and Lokoja (Kogi) to implore political actors to allow peaceful elections. The actors in both states signed the Peace Accord, committing themselves to be law abiding on poll day.
Read Also: INEC declares zero tolerance against electoral misconduct
The commission carried out its Risk Assessment of the two states and shared its findings with the security agencies. It was on the basis on this Risk Assessment, together with the report of the Risk Assessment carried out by the Police that a deployment plan was drawn up for the elections.
INEC also consulted widely with the security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), which is being chaired by the National Security Adviser with the INEC Chairman as Co-Chair.
Learning from the 2019 general election experience, the Commission signed MoUs with individual transport and boat owners in both states to ensure smooth movement and delivery of elections officials and elections materials for the elections in the two states and to fulfill all other logistic requirements.
All ad-hoc staff were adequately trained and in good time too. Besides, in order to prevent any complications, the commission issued individual Letters of Appointment to all ad-hoc staff with full details about their remuneration and what is required of them. All sensitive and non-sensitive materials were delivered to the specified location in good time. Adequate number of Smart Card Readers were deployed.
On election day, over 80 percent of all the pollinguUnits were opened between 7am and 10am. The system of simultaneous accreditation and voting was successfully used. Collation took place at the RAC, LGA and State levels as planned. Results were declared within 48 hours.
However, despite signing the Peace Accord, political actors still hired thugs to disrupt the polls in some areas. There were reports that armed men went to some polling units in Kogi and Bayelsa states and snatched/destroyed ballot boxes. There were also reported cases of unprovoked attacks by armed thugs in some areas.
These conditions forced the Returning Officer for the Kogi West Senatorial Election to declare the election inconclusive, while returns were made for the governorship elections in the two states.
Yakubu maintained that these disruptions were not so widespread enough to prevent the commission from announcing the overall results. INEC did not receive reports from the field in both states that could have justified the suspension of process.
The conditions for suspending the process in an on-gong election are stated in the extant laws and taking any action to the contrary would have amounted to an illegality.
Litigations:
Arising from last year’s general election, a total of 807 post-election petitions were filed at the tribunals. Out of this figure, 582 were dismissed, 183 withdrawn by the petitioners, 30 for re-run election and 12 for issuance of certificates of return.
This means that the Commission is required by order of the tribunals to conduct re-run elections in 30 constituencies across 12 States of the Federation involving 2 Senatorial Districts out of 109, 13 Federal Constituencies out of 360 and 15 State Constituencies out of 991.
In a majority of cases, elections are to be re-run in just a few polling units, some of them in only one polling unit in the entire constituency.
The elections were held in 1,558 constituencies nationwide. The 30 constituencies into which re-run elections will be conducted represent 1.92% (approximately 2%) of the total number of constituencies. To INEC, progress is being made in this respect.
For instance, in the 2015 General Election held in 1,490 constituencies (excluding the 68 constituencies in FCT where elections were not due as was the case in 2019), re-run elections by court order were held in 80 constituencies (5.37%) made of 10 Senatorial Districts, 17 Federal Constituencies and 53 State Constituencies across 15 States of the Federation.
Electoral Act amendment:
Media pressure on the National Assembly is needed for a holistic amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 & relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution to block the loopholes being exploited by politicians to perpetrate electoral crimes.
For instance, the section of the law that stipulates that once a Returning Officer makes a declaration (even if it is done under duress) only a court of law can upturn it needs to be amended. Some politicians now take advantage of that loophole. They now kidnap a Returning Officer and force the hapless Returning Officer to declare them winner at gun point.
Smart Card Reader:
One critical area that the commission will engage the National Assembly is the status of the Smart Card Reader (SCR). According to Yakubu, “the SCR has come to stay” and “it cannot be jettisoned or abandoned. Rather, the
Commission will seek ways by which its utility in elections can be enhanced for the triple objectives of verification of the genuineness of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), confirmation of ownership and fingerprint authentication of voters.”
The INEC Chairman added: “The status of the SCR must be provided for and protected by law. Similarly, accreditation data from the SCR should be used to determine over-voting and the margin of lead principle.
“The judgement of the Supreme Court on the primacy of the voters’ register as the determinant of over-voting in law merely draws attention to the lacuna in the electoral legal framework which must be addressed through immediate and appropriate amendment to the Electoral Act.
“The Commission will present a proposal to the National Assembly on this matter as well as other areas in which further deployment of technology will deepen the integrity of our electoral process.”
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