Rethink inconclusive elections

Following the disruption of the electoral process, often violently, in some parts of the country during the Saturday, March 9 governorship and state assembly elections, the Independent   National   Electoral   Commission   [INEC] declared the elections inconclusive in six states. These were Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Plateau, Adamawa   and   Benue.    Late  arrival of polling materials and failure of […]

Following the disruption of the electoral process, often violently, in some parts of the country during the Saturday, March 9 governorship and state assembly elections, the Independent   National   Electoral   Commission   [INEC] declared the elections inconclusive in six states. These were Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Plateau, Adamawa   and   Benue.    Late  arrival of polling materials and failure of the Smart Card Reader [SCR] also contributed to declaring elections  inconclusive in some states. Two weeks earlier, some   Senate   and   House   of Representatives   elections   were   also   not   concluded, prompting   the   conduct   of supplementary polls in the affected Polling Units (PUs) or wards.

Under   Sections   26   and   53   of   the   Electoral Act, elections   are   declared inconclusive where the margin of lead between two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the Polling Units where elections were not held or were cancelled. This means the votes of eligible voters who could not cast their votes could, when given a second chance during a supplementary election, at least in theory alter the election result.

INEC then scheduled Saturday, March 23 for the conduct of supplementary elections in six states, except Adamawa where it was re-scheduled  to   Thursday,   March   28. This was because one small party, MRDD, went to court and obtained an injunction because it said its logo was omitted from the ballot paper. It turned out that MRDD did not validly nominate a governorship ticket in the first place.

Supplementary   elections   have   now   taken   place   in   all   the   six   states   that   had inconclusive governorship elections. While it was adjudged peaceful in Plateau and Benue states, the media as well as local and international election observers all said the supplementary election in Kano State was marred by pockets of violence orchestrated by political thugs. In that election, PDP’s 26,000 vote lead was overturned by the APC candidate. There was   also a   keen   contest   in   Sokoto State and the PDP candidate won with only 341 votes, the narrowest in the whole country. In Bauchi and Adamawa states, the incumbent APC governors who trailed on March 9 were defeated in the final tally.

Although   the   Electoral   Act’s provisions for   inconclusive and supplementary elections were meant to address some peculiar problems in Nigerian elections, they have inadvertently created other problems. For example, the opposition PDP declared deliberate collusion because its candidates were leading in five out of the six states where governorship elections were declared inconclusive. The provisions for inconclusive and supplementary elections have enabled some crooked politicians who are on the verge of losing an election to stage-manage the disruption of the electoral process. The allegation is that ruling party candidates are able to do this with the collusion of crooked INEC and security officials.

The many ways in which this could be done include obstruction and resistance to deployment of election materials, voter   resistance   to   the   use   of smart card reader, disruption   of   voting   process, snatching of ballot box as well as destruction of ballot papers and result sheets. INEC National Commissioner supervising FCT, Niger, Kaduna and Plateau states Antonia Okoosi- Simbine said in Jos at the presentation of certificates of return to the re-elected governor and state assembly members last Friday that inconclusive elections in itself was not a bad thing but she described as unfortunate, a new trend where some parties and candidates engaged in violent behaviour which included manhandling election duty officials in order to orchestrate it.

Some of the regrettable events including disenfranchisement through intimidation of eligible voters and ballot box  snatching,   which   characterized   supplementary governorship   elections  in   some   states,  should   be   a  lesson   from   which   security agencies particularly the police should rise to the challenge. Owing to the undue advantage which parties losing in an election now take of the margin of lead principle that allows for elections to be declared inconclusive, we advise INEC to have a serious re-examination of this provision of the Electoral Act in order to close the gaping loophole. For now, it is threatening to discredit our elections.