While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headed by Attahiru Jega recorded three inconclusive elections in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi State after the 2015 governorship elections, the commission under Mahmood Yakubu has recorded twice that number in the 2019 polls, besides rising violence and voter apathy.
Results of an election are declared inconclusive where the total number of registered voters in units where the results are cancelled, or where the elections are postponed, are sufficient to cause a change in the outcome of the election, according to INEC guidelines.
So far elections in Benue, Osun, Bauchi, Adamawa, Sokoto, Plateau, and Nasarawa have been declared inconclusive. The result of Rivers was suspended. The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) now accuses INEC of colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to declare areas it had electoral advantage inconclusive.
“The PDP has full intelligence of how INEC is acting on instructions from the Buhari Presidency and the APC in orchestrating unwholesome situations and declaring already concluded governorship elections in Sokoto, Adamawa, Bauchi, Plateau as well as other states as inconclusive, immediately it becomes obvious that the PDP was set to win,” Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP national publicity secretary, said in a press conference.
There were 61 incidences of election violence in 22 states with 58 people killed during the 2015 polls, according to the National Human Rights Commission.
While all the body bags are not in, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room reports that 58 people have been killed with incidences of violence recorded in several states, especially Rivers, in the 2019 elections.
Based on its observation, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room reported militarisation of the electoral process and prevalence of vote-buying in many states.
Clement Nwankwo, convener of the organization, said excessive involvement of the military and security officials in elections is a worrying trend.
Citing provisions of Section 29 (3) of the Electoral Act, Nwankwo said the “deployment of Nigerian Armed forces for elections shall be at the request of INEC and only for the purpose of distribution and delivery of election materials and protection of election officials”.
The Army said it had a constitutional duty to support the police in providing peace.
However, videos surfaced online purportedly depicting soldiers disrupting the electoral process in Rivers State and the Army claimed politicians were fitting troublemakers with military uniforms to foment trouble.
As early as September 2018, an explosive device blew up near the Port Harcourt headquarters of the APC. Incidents of violent crimes, including kidnappings for ransom and armed robbery, have earned Rivers State the title of ‘Rivers of Blood’. In Lagos, thugs burnt ballot boxes.
The 2019 elections were always going to be important. The economy was crawling out of a bruising recession, rising waves of violence in the north, over 23 million people without jobs and growing frustration from a country with world’s highest number of poor people. But the election morphed from being a contest of ideas to a puerile debate about which candidate was the least corrupt.
From there, it went downhill. INEC announced a postponement five hours to when polls were due to open causing the economy losses of over $10 billion, according to economists. INEC adhoc staff reported unprecedented neglect, election materials were sent to wrong locations, and even the INEC chairman appeared overwhelmed in a press conference hours after postponing the election.
The postponement fuelled apathy but it worsened when President Buhari was returned winner and many voters said their votes did not count.
“As a governance person, I am saddened that we seem to have reversed the trajectory of progressively-better general elections that started in 2007,” wrote Joe Abah, a former director-general, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, in a social media post.
Unlike in previous polls, where voters were accredited and returned to vote, INEC guidelines stated that accreditation and voting would proceed simultaneously, yet the commission returned results in some cases, where voter numbers differed from the number of those accredited to vote. Fights broke out at collation centres and a returning officer in Imo State said he announced results under duress.
In many polling units, card readers failed. Haleemat Busari, deputy governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos State, and her husband voted manually as card readers failed. Hundreds of these incidents were reported all across the country.
The figures announced by INEC confounded the nation as regions beset with violence often reported larger voter turnout than those areas with relative peace leading to accusations of voter suppression.
“One obvious red flag is the statistical impossibility of states ravaged by the war on terror generating much higher voter turnouts than peaceful states,” said Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the PDP in the February 23 election.
“The suppressed votes in my strongholds are so apparent and amateurish that I am ashamed as a Nigerian that such could be allowed to happen. How can total votes in Akwa Ibom State, for instance, be 50 percent less than what they were in 2015?” he asked.
In the 2015 presidential polls, less than 850,000 votes were voided, but in 2019 presidential elections, 1,084,358 were cancelled even when less number of voters turned out than they did in 2015. Buhari won in 2015 with 15.4 million votes against Goodluck Jonathan’s 12.8 million. In 2019, INEC announced that Buhari polled 15,191,874 votes to defeat Atiku, who got 11,262,978 votes.
“We have recorded 1,084,358 cancelled votes across 1,175 polling units in 18 states. The pattern of this cancellation requires some close interrogation to show fairness and objectivity. The reasons provided for the cancelled votes include over-voting, card reader malfunction and violence,” said Nwankwo of Situation Room.
“Situation Room demands that INEC provide clarification on rationale and compliance with its guidelines regarding the cancellation of polls. Accusations that these cancellations may have been contrived to suppress votes need to be taken seriously and addressed before the close of tabulation,” he said.
ISAAC ANYAOGU
