The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently released the guidelines for the forthcoming general elections to all the political parties participating in the polls. TOPE FAYEHUN in this report dissects the issues raised by the guidelines.
Anxiety over the capability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a free and fair election in the forthcoming general election has again resurfaced as some political parties have rejected some of the issues raised in the guidlines for the forthcoming poll.
The Commission had last week released the guidelines for the forthcoming 2019 general elections to all the stakeholders to enable them know what regulates and guides the election.
The guidelines, according to the commission, set the template for the conduct of the general elections and all subsequent elections in the country until it is changed by the commission either through a Decision Extract or government gazette.
INEC said: “In order to remain focused on their assignment, Collation Officers are not allowed to make or receive telephone calls during collation.”
However, after the guidelines were released by the commission, some stakeholders have been picking holes, particularly the prohibition on the use of mobile telephones by election collation officers.
LEADERSHIP investigation revealed that inhibition may have followed concerns over developments in the recent governorship election in Osun State where it was alleged that a phone call received by the election collation officer helped to change the outcome of the election.
But beyond that, some opposition political parties do not see INEC conducting free, fair and credible elections even before the guidelines were released by the Commission.
According to the guidelines: “Where a voter’s PVC is read but his/her fingerprint is not authenticated, the APO I shall refer the voter to the APO II who shall request the voter to thumbprint the appropriate box in the Register of Voters; request the voter to provide his/her phone number in appropriate box in the Register of Voters; continue with the accreditation of the voter; and refer the voter to the PO or APO (VP) for issuance of ballot paper(s).
“Where a voter’s PVC is read and the SCR shows the details of another person, rather than the details of the cardholder as printed on the PVC, the APO I shall: Refer the voter to APO II to confirm that the details of the voter in the Register of Voters correspond to those on the PVC; APO II if satisfied that the holder of the card is on the Register of Voters, shall record the phone number of the voter in the appropriate box on the Register of Voters; and Proceed with the accreditation of the voter.”
This provision has been the bone of contention between the INEC and some opposition parties who prior to the release of the guideline last Monday called on the commission to redraft the guidelines.
They are worried that the present leadership of the commission led by its Prof. Yakubu Mahmood has not taken into consideration the views of political parties which are major stakeholders involved in the election, unlike its predecessor, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
The opposition parties expressed surprise that this time around, INEC only sought consultation with the political parties after the deed had been done. They further alleged that even after the consultation, the commission refused to take their views into consideration as the guideline churned out last Monday remained what the commission presented.
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However, the parties under the aegis of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, and Inter-party Advisory Council,IPAC, who had unanimously rejected the draft guidelines presented to it by the electoral umpire, had vowed to take the commission to court if it refuses to rescind its decision.
The groups, in a statement vowed to take legal action against the commission to reverse what they claim was an injustice aimed at deliberately rigging the forthcoming election.
The 1st National spokesperson of CUPP, Ikenga Ugochinyere, said 61 aggrieved parties have decided to file legal action against the commission “to stop INEC from releasing the guideline and also quash some sections of the draft guideline which are in conflict with the provisions of the 1999 constitution including the obnoxious provisions inserted into the guideline which will lead to massive rigging of the 2019 elections.”
Ugochinyere, who did not mention details of other political parties involved, noted that four of the 61 national chairmen of the 61 aggrieved political parties he said had agreed to file the action on behalf of the others.
He added: “The playdate (Ikenga Ugochinyere, APP; Dr Sam Eke, GPN; Nsehe Nseobong, RP and Barr. Kenneth Udeze, AA), will be seeking for an exparte application for an injunction to restrain the INEC chairman from going ahead with the Monday planned release of the controversial guideline which the majority of the nations political parties (Over 61) have rejected over non consultation, obnoxious clauses and the violation of the Constitution.”
The statement read in full: “The chairmen of the political parties still insist that the only way to have free and fair election is for those obnoxious clauses contained in the guideline which does not promote free and fair elections to be expunged and that the INEC chairmen summons an emergency meeting with political parties chairmen to finally address the grey areas contained in the guidelines to avoid the 2019 election running into a hitch and credibility crisis even before the day of election.
“The parties still insist that the chairman of INEC retains the 2011 and 2015 separate accreditation and separate voting system which Nigerian voters are fully familiar with and avoid creating confusion and loophole for massive tampering of result with the continuous/same time accreditation and voting. INEC recently tried the method in few re-runs but that is not enough to extend such voting method to all parts of the country few weeks to the election.
“The demand of party chairmen is for INEC to continue the separate accreditation and separate voting system and ensure that at the end of accreditation across the country on election day, that in polling unit staff first announce the total polling unit accredited figures and sign and issue out to party agents at the polling unit before commencement of voting thereby protecting the sanctity of the votes by securing the accreditation figures which if announced before voting and given to agents it will make post-election and voting manipulation difficult because the accreditation figures are already out and riggers can’t tamper with the election outcome or increase the votes again.
The fear of some of the stakeholders that though the continuous accreditation and voting pattern was used in some states in earlier elections, it has not been perfected for it to be used on a national scale.
However, analysts are of the opinion that the fear of the opposition is that the time between when voting is finished and results are announced could allow all sorts of malpractices to happen.
Notwithstanding their fears and apprehension, the Mahmood Yakubu led INEC had regularly vowed to produce an election to surpass the 2015 standard.
Pundits observed that the commission’s seeming detachment from inputting the views of stakeholders could become its undoing.
