2019 ELECTIONS AND MATTERS ARISING
President Buhari has a responsibility to safeguard the democratic process
With barely five months to the 2019 general elections, Nigeria is faced with a myriad of challenges that has the tendency to mar the exercise. First, the continuous voters’ registration exercise recently suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was characterised by fundamental flaws. Despite the extension of deadline, several prospective voters could not be registered because of needless difficulties in their bid to register.
Indeed, hundreds of thousands of prospective voters were frustrated as there were not enough officials to attend to them before the exercise ended. In some registration centres across the country, some women had to fake pregnancy with a view to drawing the sympathy of INEC officers to facilitate their registration. There were also reports of people who had to part with money before they could be attended to. These developments are unhealthy as many Nigerians will be deprived of exercising their civic and democratic rights on election day.
However, what perhaps constitutes the biggest impediment is the debacle over Electoral Act (Amendment) to which President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to give his assent. With barely 24 hours to the expiration of the 30-day grace at his disposal to assent to the bill, the country faces the prospect of being compelled to use the old Electoral Act for the conduct of the 2019 elections, and that will be nothing but a setback. Already, several critical stakeholders, including political parties and advocacy groups have expressed their anger at the disposition of the president.
It is instructive that the current bill was transmitted to the president on 3rd August, 2018 following the consideration of the initial observations he raised. Given the existing rules and protocols guiding preparations for the conduct of elections, if the bill is not signed six months before the elections, it becomes invalid hence the 2019 polls cannot be predicated on it; so technically, the bill might have lapsed. It is hard to believe the insinuations in some quarters that the president has refused assent because of the provision that makes the use of card readers mandatory for the accreditation of voters.
While the card readers were used for the accreditation of voters during the 2015 general elections, it was not a legal provision then and where it did not function, voters were accredited manually. But with its incorporation into the bill, any form of manual accreditation has been outlawed. That therefore means that it will be completely difficult to inflate votes beyond the number of the voters accredited.
It is noteworthy that in 2015, the use of the card readers also generated so much unease in the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), evidently because of the same cold calculations. Without its deployment, the outcome of the presidential election might have been different. It is therefore unfortunate that President Buhari who benefited from the use of card reader now seems reluctant in legalising the technology that has helped to improve on the credibility of elections in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, as the jostle for party tickets in various political parties in accordance with INEC timetable on the conduct of the 2019 polls holds between August and 8th October, the high cost of purchasing expression of interest forms remains a huge impediment to participation in elections. Unfortunately, rather than show a good example, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has priced its tickets at practically all levels beyond the reach of many people. Yet, as long as the cost of political participation remains high, the nation will continue to be deprived of the services of well-meaning Nigerians.
Given the foregoing, the president has a responsibility to safeguard democracy in the country by ensuring that he does not put his personal ambition above national interest. But the political parties also have a responsibility of ensuring that internal democracy is upheld and that every candidate for the forthcoming general election emerges on merit after a process devoid of any form of manipulation. That is the only way to grow democracy in Nigeria.
The political parties have a responsibility of ensuring that internal democracy is upheld and that every candidate for the forthcoming general election emerges on merit after a process devoid of any form of manipulation