Be courageous to cancel manipulated election, judiciary urged

The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought (ASSPT) has urged the judiciary to be courageous enough to cancel any election, where there are clear evidence that the processes, including results collations were manipulated. Executive Director of the school, Dr Sam Amadi, gave the advice during a series on deepening democracy, organised by the organisation […]

The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought (ASSPT) has urged the judiciary to be courageous enough to cancel any election, where there are clear evidence that the processes, including results collations were manipulated.

Executive Director of the school, Dr Sam Amadi, gave the advice during a series on deepening democracy, organised by the organisation yesterday in Abuja.

He said that the series titled “From Edo to Ondo: Taking Democracy in Nigeria Seriously”, was important to ensure next Saturday’s November 16 off cycle governorship election in Ondo State would be credible.

He urged the judiciary to ensure those who committed electoral offences were sanctioned to serve as deterrent to others.

“When manipulated electoral process were allowed to scaled through without section to those who manipulated the system, the worst would be done during future elections.

“The courts should have the courage to reject election results that show clearly that they are manipulated.

“The courts may not pronounce a winner, but order INEC to review the results and take consequential action.

“The reason why politicians are now more heroic in manipulating the electoral system is that there’s no deterrent for electoral offenses and manipulations. I want to see the courts exercise more capacity to stop manipulation of election,” Amadi said.

He said that if elections manipulation and electoral offenders were allowed to continue to scale through, peoples’ participation in future elections including 2027 would drop.

On the Ondo election, Amadi urged INEC to ensure that the process is credible and that there were no manipulation of results.

He urged the commission to ensure that results from INEC results Viewing Portal (IREV) tally with those collated manually.

He said, “Any attempt to capture the electoral management body must be collectively resisted.”

Also, Mr Austin Aigbe of West Africa Democracy Solidarity Network, said it was high time Nigerians started looking at the electoral process, rather than decorating energy on the people in charge of the electoral system.

Aigbe called for an electoral system that allow both electronic and manual process for both voting and results collation system.

“We don’t need a system that allow human errors. We need a system that combined both the manual and electronic system, where when the manual collated result tallies with electronic collated results.

“We also need a system like that of the USA, where there is an election dashboard that will tell you who is winning an election,” Aigbe said.