The values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy. In turn, democracy provides an environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights.
For several years, the UN General Assembly and the former Commission on Human Rights endeavoured to draw on international human rights instruments to promote a common understanding of the principles and values of democracy. As a result, in 2000, the Commission recommended a series of legislative, institutional and practical measures to consolidate democracy. Moreover, in 2002, the Commission declared the following as essential elements of democracy: Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; Freedom of association; Freedom of expression and opinion; Access to power and its exercise in accordance with the rule of law; The holding of periodic free and fair elections by universal suffrage and by secret ballot as the expression of the will of the people; A pluralistic system of political parties and organizations; The separation of powers; The independence of the judiciary; Transparency and accountability in public administration; and Free, independent and pluralistic media.
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Of all the essential elements of democracy as identified by the United Nations, the one of concern here is the holding of periodic free and fair elections by universal suffrage and by secret ballot as the expression of the will of the people. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is saddled with the responsibility of organising, undertaking and supervising all elections to the offices of the President and Vice-President, the Governor and Deputy Governor of a State, and to the membership of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state of the federation.
Before the 2023 general election, Nigerians pushed for the amendment of the Electoral Act to address some of the shortcomings that had made it difficult to conduct free and fair elections in Nigeria since 1999. After much pressure by the civil society organisations, other stakeholders and the National Assembly the 2022 Electoral Bill was eventually signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari after prevaricating for several weeks.
One of the highpoints of the 2022 Electoral Act is Electronic voting and transmission of election results. Section 47(2) of the new Act provides a legal basis for electronic accreditation of voters. The provision allows voters to be electronically accredited using Smart Card Readers or any other technical equipment determined by INEC. Section 50 (2) of the Act allows INEC to determine the means of transmitting election results. In other words, INEC has the sole authority to decide whether election results are transmitted electronically or manually. Another one is the issue of over voting. Over voting occurs when the total number of votes cast in a polling unit exceeds the number of accredited voters in that polling unit.
Section 51(2) of the new Electoral Act provides that the total number of accredited voters will become a deciding factor in the legality of an election. The provision permits the returning officer to cancel results where total votes cast exceed the number of accredited voters.
Before the election the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu and INEC commissioner Festus Okoye were everywhere promising that they are going to implement electronic identification and uploading of results from polling units in real time, saying Nigerians and the rest of the world could view the results at the same time.
It was that kind of assurance that spurred more Nigerians, especially the youths to register to vote and galvanized perhaps the biggest youths’ electoral participation in Nigeria since 1999.
You can therefore imagine the shock of Nigerians when the first set of elections took place on February 25 for the Presidential and National Assembly elections and they discovered that the country is still possessed by the old demon. Despite introducing the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to ensure the credibility of the polls, uploading the results using the BVAS did not work as expected, raising concerns that the elections, especially the presidential election was compromised. The reason for that kind of assumption by the losing presidential candidates of the opposition parties, Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not farfetched.
On election day INEC claimed that it had technical glitches that made it difficult to upload results quickly from polling units to IReV. However, despite the glitches the over 176000 BVAS that was deployed across the over 176000 polling units in the country was able to upload Senate and House of Representatives results to the IReV, but none of the over 760,000 BVAS was able to upload any presidential election result to the IReV. The inability of the BVAS to upload the presidential election result is one of the reasons that the opposition have taken the matter to court. It is now left for the court to look into their grievances and see whether it has merit. But one thing is for sure actions and inactions of INEC in this election circle are threatening our democracy that Nigerians fought so hard to have after many years of military dictatorship.
The impact of the INEC mismanagement of the February 25 elections manifested in the low voter turnout at the governorship and state house of assembly elections on March 18, 2023. Aside the low voter turnout INEC also did not insist on instant upload of polling unit results to the IReV and there are reports that INEC officials vehemently refused to upload the polling unit results to IReV giving all manner of reason. Adding insult to injury is the alleged reports of INEC officials collaborating with security agents to sabotage the will of the people. This was done more brazenly in March 18 elections when some state governors allegedly collaborated with security agents and INEC officials to subvert the peoples will with impunity and asked those who are not satisfied to go to court. No democracy can survive for long with this type of injustice that the political elites are perpetrating. This democracy came at a big cost including the death of Chief MKO Abiola, his wife and so many other Nigerians. Our democracy must be protected at all cost by the Nigerian people since President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to keep to his avowal to Nigerians and the international community that he would leave a legacy of free, fair and transparent election.
Ballot box scattered by thugsWhat made matters worse was the hijack of the process by the state governors.
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze accused governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike of crude display of desperation to usurp democracy and foist his will on the people. He said the governor connived with security agencies and INEC officials to change results to suit his desire in clear contravention of the electoral process and true outcome of the elections.
Also, in a shocking turn of events at the governorship election, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State stormed the election collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Obingwa Local Government Area of the state to disrupt the collation of results of Saturday’s governorship election in the state. Governor Ikpeazu, accompanied by the Abia State Commissioner of Police and a group of supporters, barged into the collation centre on Sunday in a style that put election officials and observers in a panic mood.
The governor stormed the collocation centre after the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, reportedly directed the election officer in charge of the Obingwa collation centre to move results from the LGA to the state collation office in Umuahia, following reports of alleged attempts to alter the results.
Ikpeazu’s visit reportedly followed Yakubu’s directive that results from the LGA be collated in the presence of the State’s Returning Officer.
While the governor and the police eventually left the collation center, some unidentified political thugs remained at the Obingwa collation centrer and prevented the election officers from relocating to the Umuahia collation office.
After the hugely flawed presidential and National Assembly elections in which riggers were not punished, the governors were more emboldened for more rigging of elections. The governors made moves to rig the elections by all means possible, including resorting to extra-judicial means to compromise the process.
Aside allegedly recruiting thugs to help them disrupt the process to garner more votes, one of the means through which the governors rigged the exercise was by working with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in their respective states.
In addition to this is was the compromising of electoral officers, thus making the falsification of results much easier than it was in the previous exercise.
Part of their rigging plan was to frustrate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) from working, a situation that enabled them to handle the collation of results manually through their proxies for desired outcome.
The governors, in cahoots with security agencies, began by arresting some prominent opposition members and forcing people to vote for them against their wish.
Unfortunately, President Muhammadu Buhari who is the commander in chief of the armed forces failed to lift a finger to call the governors to order. The negligence of Buhari aided the governors to make mess of the whole exercise.
-From Editorial Desk UNITY TIMES