Bayelsa/kogi guber polls: Can INEC, securities prove critics of 2019 general elections wrong?
As the people of Bayelsa and Kogi states go out to vote in the next Saturday’s governorship election, one question that is on the minds of concerned Nigerians about the nation’s electoral process, is whether the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies can do something different from the recent general elections?
The February/march general elections that brought back President Muhamadu Buhari and 18 state governors into second term, 11 new governors into office, as well as, members of the national and state houses of assembly into office were described by both local/ international observers as worst polls since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999.
The elections were reported to have been characterized by high incidences of violence, manipulations, rigging, ballot box snatching, disruption at collation centres, vote buying and inconclusive polls. INEC and security agencies were indicted by observers, commentators and analysts as prime culprits in the electoral offences.
There were widespread violence in many states of the federation resulting into killings and maiming of voters, political actors, security agents, INEC staff, observers and journalists while electoral frauds such as vote buying, ballot stuffing and discrepancies in results entries culminated in the declaration of results in so many states inconclusive with rescheduled polls, which were not even better off.
Several reports from local and international observer groups including; the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI), Civil Society Situation Room and Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in their reports of the 2019 general elections expressed serious reservations over the conduct of the last polls with regards to non-credibility and violence blamed mostly on INEC and security agencies.
The EU EOM final report on the 2019 elections observed that lack of transparency and inconsistent numbers during the collation of results by the INEC cast a long shadow over the integrity of the 2019 elections.
According to the report, in almost all the collation centres monitored, the results forms and smart card readers were not packed in tamper-evident envelopes as required.
“Numerical discrepancies and anomalies on polling unit results forms were identified and were mostly corrected by collation officers on the spot, but without a clear system of record -keeping.
“Leading parties were at fault in not reining in acts of violence and intimidation by their supporters, and abuse of incumbency at federal and state levels.
“Inconsistent numbers during collation, lack of clear checks and explanations, and insufficient public information undermined the integrity of the elections.
“Similarly, there is a lack of disaggregated results by local government, ward or polling unit, which would allow for thorough checking of results”, the report read in parts.
The EU EOM concluded that the elections were marked by severe operational and transparency shortcomings, security problems and low turnout.
On the other hand, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room in its report lamented that an estimated 626 persons were killed across Nigeria in the six months between the start of the election campaign and the commencement of the general and supplementary elections, adding that the 2019 general elections did not meet the threshold for free, fair and credible elections.
The report indicated that, “there were differences between the number of accredited voters and the total number of votes cast in many polling units.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission operations fell short of its identified role. Military involvement in the 2019 general elections was outside of the limits allowed by law”.
Similarly and recently, a postmortem report of the 2019 general elections by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) indicted INEC and security agencies for the shortcomings experienced particularly at ward collation centres during the February -March polls.
The report showed that misconduct and mistakes by INEC staff undermined ward-level collation in many locations, especially in cases where the Commission’s ward-level officers or ad hoc staff lacked sufficient knowledge of the rules and procedures designed to ensure successful and credible results collation.
“Some staff lacked the basic arithmetic skills needed for timely and accurate collation of results, thereby leading to errors in the result sheets, inconsistencies in collated figures, and delays in the time-sensitive process — the longer it takes to conclude the collation process beyond the stipulated time for concluding the process, the more doubts are created in the minds of voters that something untoward is happening to compromise the integrity of the collation process and, therefore, of the elections,” the report said.
Furthermore, the report stated that in many wards across Nigeria, security personnel were observed intimidating election workers or were alleged to have done so, in other locations, security agencies failed to deploy adequate number of personnel to safeguard election officials and sensitive materials, despite receiving dedicated government funding to do so, and in some areas, members of the security forces played an active role in disrupting collation activities.
“In Lagos State, observers at one WCC noted that ‘security agents chased everybody outside with guns when the results were being collated. Malfeasance by soldiers and other security agents especially disrupted ward-level collation in Rivers State.
“Elections in several LGAS in the state were heavily disrupted by security agencies tasked with safeguarding the process. As a result, tens of thousands of voters were disenfranchised. In Okrika LGA, for example, security personnel invaded the INEC office in the LGA and snatched official collated election results. Before doing so, the same security agents had threatened collation centre officials by shooting their firearms into the air.
“Earlier, during ward-level collation, a team of soldiers led by an army officer suspended collation and ordered his men to take away all materials, including results being collated by election officials.
Streets leading to polling units where election is currently ongoing in Osogbo are fully militarised. Soldiers, police, SSS, NSCDC officials are standing guard in adjourning routes to the poll 17, Ward 5 of the LGA.
“The materials were carted away with nothing left for the electoral officer to present as evidence for the election, according to observers. Soldiers similarly seized results from four other wards, according to observers from Stakeholder Democracy Network, a CDD partner”, the report said.
The report also identified six challenges which plagued the collation of results of the 2019 election as INEC missteps and misconduct; deliberate denial of access to observers and media; logistical shortfalls; intentional disruption by politicians, political thugs and party agents; and intimidation of collation staff by security agents.
Apart from the knocks given to INEC and of security agencies, the local and international observer groups also made recommendations and suggestions to the electoral umpire to improve on its future elections and to the security agencies on how to conduct themes during polls.
For instance, EU EOM report made 30 recommendations for electoral reforms, which need political leadership that is dedicated to the rights of Nigerian citizens, and an inclusive process of national dialogue involving state institutions, parties, civil society and the media, which should be “urgently undertaken to allow time for debate, legislative changes and implementation well in advance of the next elections”.
The report also said INEC should considerably strengthen its organisational and operational capacity, as well as, its internal communication, noting that the inter -agency body responsible for electoral security should work more transparently and inclusively with regular consultations with political parties and civil society.
The mission said the seven areas of priorities for electoral reform included requirements in law for full results transparency with data easily accessible to the public.
INEC had on its part promised to implement the recommendations of the observer groups, particularly those
within its administrative powers while it would engage relevant stakeholders to carry out the necessary reforms.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC, chairman, while receiving the EU delegation ahead of the public presentation of its report of the 2019 general elections had said, the EU EOM report is coming at the right time as it will feed into the ongoing review of the conduct of the 2019 general elections.
According to Yakubu, “the 30 observations and recommendations of the EU EOM to the 2015 general elections were particularly useful not only in the design of some important proposals for reforming the electoral legal framework, but also in improving our electoral processes and procedures”.
Thus, the Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections have set another stage for INEC and security agencies to prove to Nigerians whether it has learnt lessons from much criticized general elections or it has really begin the implementation of the recommendations of the observer groups for electoral reforms.
Already, drums of wars are already beating high in Bayelsa and Kogi where the main political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in daggers drawn, leaving the high probability of violence, rigging, vote buying and all manner of electoral frauds, which INEC and security agencies ought to contain.
INEC seems to be seriously worried as the chairman at a meeting with security agencies declared that there are already warning signals in the two states, both are politically volatile and elections have been severally disrupted by violence in the past.
He expressed concern that thugs have been mobilised from within and outside the states with the aim of either influencing the elections or disrupting the process on behalf of partisan sponsors.
Consequently, the Commission had met with stakeholders in Bayelsa State last Thursday there will be another meeting in Kogi State both have in attendance, the Inspector-general of Police, the
Director General of NYSC and representatives of all the security agencies to listen to the concerns of stakeholders and fine-tune plans in full consultation with the stakeholders.
On its part, the Police, which is the lead election security agency, said a total of 62, 241 Police personnel would be deployed for Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections.
Accordingly to the Inspector-general of Police, Mohammed Adamu out of this number, 31,041 are to man the elections in Bayelsa while 31,200 personnel are to police Kogi, adding that an advanced team has already been deployed to the two States for surveillance ahead of the polls day.