The Waste in Inconclusive Elections

It should worry all Nigerians that two governorship elections in a row, in Kogi and Bayelsa States, were declared “inconclusive” at the end of the first try. Both elections were off-season, that is, they were not taking place alongside most other states in the country, which had their governorship elections last March. The November 21 […]

It should worry all Nigerians that two governorship elections in a row, in Kogi and Bayelsa States, were declared “inconclusive” at the end of the first try. Both elections were off-season, that is, they were not taking place alongside most other states in the country, which had their governorship elections last March.
The November 21 governorship election in Kogi State had been planned for many months but by the time the results were in, the returning officer Prof Emmanuel Kucha declared them to be inconclusive. This was because voting could not take place in 91 polling stations across the state due to ballot box snatching by armed thugs and other election related violence. These 91 polling units together had 49,000 registered voters, more than the 41,000 vote gap by which the APC candidate Alhaji Abubakar Audu led his nearest rival, PDP’s Governor Idris Wada. The Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] had to organise a supplementary election two weeks later, after which the substitute APC candidate Alhaji Yahaya Bello was declared the winner.
Remarkably, the same thing happened in Bayelsa State’s off-season governorship election on Saturday last week. Results were declared from seven of the state’s eight Local Government Areas. They showed PDP candidate Governor Seriake Dickson leading his nearest rival, APC’s Timipre Sylva, by more than 33,000 votes. However, voting did not take place in Southern Ijaw local government, which has more than 120,000 registered voters. The election was declared inconclusive and INEC must now organise a supplementary election in order to determine the winner.
The same reasons made for the two inconclusive elections: attempts by thugs to smash polling materials, disrupt the voting, snatch ballot boxes or tear result sheets. It is to be remembered that last March, Taraba State’s governorship election was also declared inconclusive due to similar problems in Sardauna Local Government. Much the same thing happened in Anambra State in 2013 when voting could not take place in some areas and a supplementary poll was organised before APGA’s candidate Willie Obiano defeated ACN and PDP candidates. In all cases it was either late delivery of polling materials or election violence.
The recent cases in Kogi and Bayelsa show that we are still short of where we should be with regards to election management in Nigeria. For one, supplementary elections entail a heavy cost. INEC must produce more election materials to replace those damaged by thugs, deploy a lot more logistics and pay heavily to remobilise polling officers and security men. All these can be avoided if the election is concluded at the first attempt.
It was often thought that these off-season governorship elections should be much easier for both INEC and the security agencies to handle. With only one state going to the polls at a time, INEC can concentrate its planning and logistics and achieve a much smoother operation than if the entire country is voting at the same time. Besides, only governorship elections were taking place in the two states, unlike in general elections where presidential, national and state assembly polls are taking place at the same time. That the Kogi and Bayelsa elections ended on an inconclusive note the first time around is not a good sign for upcoming off-season polls in Edo and Ondo States.
We note that violence, rather than faulty logistics was the main cause of the inconclusive elections in both Kogi and Bayelsa states. This is unfortunate given the massive deployment of policemen, DSS agents, civil defence personnel and reportedly even soldiers in the two polls.  Nigeria Police deployed 31,000 cops for the Kogi election and another 14,000 cops for Bayelsa’s election, including two CPs and a DIG. It was able to do this because all other states were not voting. Yet they were unable to stop thugs from disrupting the polls in some areas. What then happens in a general election, when each state must rely on its own compliment of policemen with no reinforcement from outside the state?
So, while a share of the blame goes to INEC and the security agencies, the largest share of the blame must be placed at the door of the candidates and their political parties. Clearly it is the politicians that mobilise and equip thugs to snatch ballot boxes or disrupt polling in some areas. The fact is that the coming of permanent voter’s cards and card reading machines has rendered the phenomenon of ballot box stuffing futile. As we recently saw in election tribunal rulings in Rivers State in particular, it is futile to stuff ballot boxes when card readers have an accurate reading of the number of properly accredited voters with their PVCs.
We know however that politicians disrupt elections for another reason. Even when they cannot stuff ballot boxes, they aim to disrupt voting in an opponent’s stronghold in order to reduce his votes. It is therefore imperative to continue to educate the political class to play their part in elections according to the rules and not to fritter away public funds used to organise elections and also create tension in the country due to inconclusive polls. When next the National Assembly is amending the Electoral Act, it will do well to incorporate the lessons of Kogi. The poll there need not be declared inconclusive if the Act had provided for voters with PVCs rather than just registered voters. The reality today is that a registered voter is of no practical value unless he has PVC.
Finally, we urge the new INEC chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu and his team to brace up and confront these challenges head on. Yakubu cannot be blamed for the observed lapses in Kogi and Bayelsa because most of the planning took place before he arrived at the scene. However, having observed them, we expect him to take care of them before the next governorship election in Edo State.