Nigeria has an electoral body that has consistently underperformed

By Gideon Arinze…

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has consistently shown Nigerians that it is incapable of playing its constitutional role of conducting elections that satisfy necessary requirements of the electoral process.

Deluge of court cases

Months after the general elections were conducted and winners declared by the INEC, the National and State Assembly elections tribunal have been busy, dealing with petitions, disqualifying candidates who had received their certificates on certain grounds and qualifying those who are “they rightful winners”. The Supreme Court has had to settle several issues too.

On Monday, May 20th, the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of the INEC, Festus Okoye, announced at a Forum on Media Coverage of 2019 General Elections in Enugu that the commission has withdrawn 25 Certificates-of-Return issued to some candidates that won during the 2019 general elections.

Okoye said that 20 of the 25 certificates-of-return were withdrawn from All Progressive Congress (APC) members to other APC members; while two from People Democratic Party (PDP) members were withdrawn and issued to other PDP members. He said that the other three were withdrawn from APC and PDP and given to other political parties.

“Before we left INEC national headquarters on Friday; the commission withdrew 25 certificates-of-return from the first owners to their new owners’’ he said, stating that the decisions to withdraw the certificates were based on court orders”. That apparently ended weeks of excitements by those who had won in their various states.

On May, 24th, the Supreme Court delivered a judgment on the Governorship, National and State Assembly elections held in Zamfara State. The apex court in its judgment ruled that the APC did not hold valid party primaries as required by law. It held that all the votes scored by the APC in the said elections were wasted votes and declared that the candidates of political parties with the second highest valid votes and the requisite spread should be declared as having been elected.

Delivering the lead judgment in Abuja- the nation’s capital, Justice Paul Galinji, held that the APC and all its candidates that participated in the elections gate-crashed, having not conducted lawful primaries and that INEC was right not have recognized the participation of APC in those elections.

He also ruled that all political parties whose candidates scored the second highest in the elections and the required spread, should be declared winners forthwith, stating that the APC votes were ‘wasted votes’

Consequently and in compliance with court orders, the INEC announced that all the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates who were the first runners-up, numbering about 37, including the Governor-elect, will be issued with certificates of return on Monday, May 27th.

But this came after the commission had declared all members of the APC winners of the election.

Presenting certificates of return to the Governor and Members of the House of Representatives at INEC Electoral Institute, Abuja, INEC boss, Mahmood Yakubu revealed that there are 809 pre-election cases pending in various courts across the country challenging the conduct of primaries by political parties for the 2019 general election.

Noting that the number was clearly more than the total number of petitions currently before the various election petition tribunals nationwide challenging the outcome of the main elections, Yakubu said that the number of Certificates of Return withdrawn by court orders had risen to 64.

Though the decision by the INEC to fully comply with the Supreme Court judgment- in the case of Zanfara and other judgments that have continued to arise after they elections- could be in the interest of democracy, it still paints a picture of an indecisive body- completely unable to carry out its duty of conducting elections and making sure that the right candidates emerge, without resort to the court of law.

Giving the critical role it plays, the body should have been more critical in the build up to elections in other to ensure that the entire electoral process was not manipulated.

How INEC failed to follow the electoral Act

The electoral act of 2010 (as amended) clearly specifies the duties of the INEC during election and what political parties are expected to do prior to elections.

Section 86 of the Electoral Act 2010 empowers INEC to keep records of activities of registered political parties meaning that parties are required to provide information sought by INEC to the Commission; particularly information relating to activities of the party.

Section 87 of the Electoral Act which outlines the procedure for nomination of candidates for elections by Political Parties provides that parties wishing to participate in elections must hold primaries to nominate their candidates. These primaries could be direct (where party members nominate candidates directly) or indirect (where delegates nominate party candidates).

Where there is only one aspirant in a political party for any of the aforesaid positions, the act holds that the party shall convene a special convention or congress to confirm such aspirant and his/her name forwarded to the Commission as the party candidate.

By this provision, there ought to be evidence that a party conducted its primary election and that it was duly monitored by the INEC before any name is submitted to the commission as candidate of a party.

The case in Zanfara- and others like it- would have been prevented well enough had the INEC made sure that all parties conducted their primaries and duly nominated and submitted names of their candidates.

Elections shifted because of the need to have free and fair polls?

On Saturday, February, 16th, Nigerian woke up to the heartbreaking news that the INEC had postponed the general elections by a week.

The Commission through its chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, announced that the presidential and National Assembly Elections, initially scheduled for February 16th, will now hold on February 23, while the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections formerly fixed for March 2nd will take place on March 9th.

He said “following a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operation plan and the determination to conduct free, fair and credible elections, the commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled is no longer feasible”.

To have suddenly decided to shift an election it had 4 years to prepare for on grounds of logistics yet reveals the extent to which the commission is ill- prepared.

Apart from the fact that the news came same day elections were supposed to hold and after many Nigerians had travelled to their various registration centres to exercise their civic duties, it sure helped to disenfranchise many people as those who had left their business for the election could not return again, after it was delayed.

Same thing happened in 2015 when the presidential election was shifted from February, 14 to March 28th while the governorship polls and Assembly elections formally scheduled for 28th February were shifted to 11 April.

What we have had in lieu of a capable commission is simply one that is usually ill prepared- even when it has the whole time in the world to prepare- and only knows how to submit bogus budgets to the National Assembly for approval before elections.

As President Muhammadu Buhari assumes office for a second term, the PDP has maintained that the INEC was heavily compromised by the Buhari Presidency to rig the February 23, 2019 Presidential election and frustrate the quest by Nigerians to reclaim the mandate from President Muhammadu Buhari and save the nation from the crisis of an illegitimate government”.

Despite several calls for him to withdraw the case from the presidential elections tribunal, Atiku has insisted that if he had lost in a free and fair election, he would have called the victor within seconds of his being aware of his victory to offer not just his congratulations, but his services to help unit Nigeria by being a bridge between the North and the South.

“However, in my democratic struggles for the past three decades, I have never see our democracy so debased as it was on Saturday, February 23, 2019” he said.

The commission told Nigerians that the elections were shifted by a whole week because of the need to have free, fair and credible elections. But as the elections were over, tribunals have been dealing with several cases. How then were the elections free, fair and credible?

Olu Omotayo, a political analyst and the President of Civil Rights Realization and Advancement Network (CRRAN), believes that INEC cannot be entirely blamed for all these problems even though it was unable to take definite and decisive decision on most problematic primaries.

He said that parties were not able to conduct free and fair primaries within them which shows gross indiscipline on their part because the system itself is faulty. “Democracy starts from within the parties. If parties cannot allow themselves to be bound by their constitution and conduct free, fair and credible primary elections, then how do we expect free, fair and credible general elections” he said.

Ours has apparently been an independent body that has failed to deliver on its constitutional mandate. Ours is an INEC that is completely ignorant of its responsibility of conducting elections that truly reflect the wishes of the citizens and translate into quality leadership.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now