This election cycle has seen its worst days. Normally we should say it is over. However, with the spate of inconclusive elections dotting the Nigerian landscape, it is not safe to say the elections are over just yet. There are at least five states that have yet to conclude governorship elections. In the same vein, there are many National Assembly and State Assembly seats yet to be conclusively decided. This has left gaping gaps in what should have been a closed chapter.
Wherever and whenever things are left hanging or spaces created uninvited and unwanted realities set in. In the last count Plateau, Sokoto, Rivers, Bauchi, Adamawa and Benue states have had their gubernatorial elections hang in the balance. Even the presidential and National Assembly elections had their own issues of inconclusiveness.
In fact, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC appeared to be in a confused state when it issued a statement saying it was going to conclude presidential election on the day of the state elections.
That was awkward considering that the election body had made a return and pronounced a winner. So what will the extra election be for when it was not going to affect the outcome of the original exercise? That was a terrible faux pas. The type you wonder whether there are normal people at INEC at all. Indeed, it did not come back to say it was announced in error. Only that there is no report out there, days after the state level elections have come and gone, saying that presidential election ballots and thumbprints did occur on March 9, 2019! Let us be clear, this is not the first time INEC will conduct a rerun election owing to the inconclusive nature of the previous one. An election is deemed inconclusive where no clear winner has emerged in the process.
This could have arisen due to over voting, cancelled votes, violence, rigging etc. So long as tabulation or collation of numbers at the end of voting shows that no clear winner has emerged where if disruptions in the process claimed lawful votes and those lawful votes if added one way or another will change the outcome, then the process will be declared inconclusive and a rerun in the affected areas ordered.
While it will be difficult to excuse INEC and its officials from blame for why this normally occurs these days, politicians and their agents are the best to blame in the circumstances. Politicians are the ones that hire thugs, buy votes, compromise election officials and precipitate mayhem. Bad behaviours such as have been listed above cause unfair outcomes or in fact crisis. It is therefore hypocritical for politicians, their agents and supporters to keep piling pressure on INEC as though it is the umpire that caused the impasse.
Politicians are the major problems of our poor electoral behaviours, therefore where there are disruptions they also are the most likely stakeholder that should be blamed. The way and manner these politicians pursue power show that it is not for the betterment of the society per se. it is obviously for self aggrandizement. Otherwise the violence we see and the culture of ‘do or die’ would have been minimised.
This is why each time new laws are made to strengthen our system or new guidelines rolled out by INEC, politicians go about looking for ways to circumvent them. For example, since the card reader was introduced, it has become more difficult to rig elections. Not that election is no longer rigged; but it has become difficult. As a result, politicians devised different ways to circumvent the process. As soon as INEC announced that it will not use incident forms for the 2019 elections but will allow those who the card reader authenticates their details but who fail in biometric conformation to vote. Politicians immediately saw an opening. What they did was to hire willing voters.
Hand them purchased cards which they use to go vote. Of course, the reader will read the card but fail the biometrics. In connivance with INEC pulling unit staff, these ghost voters are accredited to vote as many times as possible. This happened across party lines.
As all outstanding elections are rounded off this week, going forward INEC must design easy and workable frameworks that will prevent politicians from dragging us back and wasting resources in reruns, except if they will pay. Most of our problems we want to solve with legislations are manmade anyway. The more laws we make, the more the problems keep mutating.
