The 2019 general elections have since come under review with many of the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission upturned at various court rooms. The most controversial was the Supreme Court judgement, which removed the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Emeka Ihedioha, who was sworn in as Imo State Governor on May 29, 2019, having been declared as duly elected and given a Certificate of Return by INEC.
The Supreme Court, in a later judgement, however, declared Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the election and subsequently ordered that he should be sworn in as governor.
Efforts by the PDP to get a review of the judgement did not yield a positive result as the country’s apex court refused to reverse itself.
The Judiciary’s upturning of many results declared by INEC made many watchers of political events to cast aspersions on the electoral umpire.
As INEC prepares for future elections, Nigerians are yearning for more acceptable and credible elections that will not be upturned by the courts.
The test case for INEC is the upcoming governorship elections slated for September and October this year in Edo and Ondo states, respectively.
While INEC has maintained that it is ready to conduct the elections despite the COVID-19 pandemic, many analysts and political watchers want the electoral umpire to correct its past mistakes and bring back the confidence of Nigerians in our electoral system as we surge towards 2023.
The guidelines released by INEC for the conduct of the two elections, on the face value, give the hope that it is ready to carry out credible elections despite the pandemic currently ravaging Nigeria and the World.
However, Mike Ojo, an Abuja-based public affairs commentator, told The Point that the performance of INEC in the 2019 general elections called for concern from all well-meaning Nigerians, adding that it had the Ondo and Edo elections as an opportunity to correct its “bad and dented image.”
He said, “The way the results declared by INEC during the elections were upturned by the courts have made people to lose confidence in INEC as an election umpire. Everything cannot be perfect, but at least, there should be some level of credibility in the results declared by INEC.
“As we move forward, what should be the concern of well-meaning Nigerians is how to have credible elections in the country and I think all of us, as citizens of this great nation, have a role to play.”
Also, a Non-Governmental Organisation, the Coalition for Good Governance, has called on INEC to start preparing for the 2023 general elections now.
The Convener of the Coalition, Jefferson Oruoghorie, who said this, urged the electoral commission to immediately embark on more sensitisation of the electorate.
He added that the Commission’s early preparation would correct the errors of the last elections.
Recall that the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria had highlighted a number of issues regarding the 2019 polls. It also gave 30 recommendations to INEC, shortly after last year’s elections.
The mission, which had, in its preliminary report, released in April 2019, adjudged the polls as characterised by violence, underage voting, and vote-buying, however, said the election recorded some improvements compared to past ones.
One of its recommendations was that there should be an electoral reform.
“The systemic failings evident in the elections and the low levels of voter participation show the need for fundamental reform,” its report said.
It said, “Without this, there is a risk of unaccountable leadership and citizen disengagement. Such reform requires principled political leadership committed to the rights of Nigerian citizens and an inclusive process of national dialogue involving state institutions, parties, civil society, the media and other experts.
“This needs to be urgently undertaken to allow time for debate, legislative changes and implementation, well in advance of the next election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) worked in a complex security and politically-charged environment, with its premises and officials subject to physical attacks and intimidation.”
It added, “INEC made a number of improvements, including making electoral participation more accessible through simplified voting procedures. INEC made efforts to strengthen electoral integrity by issuing regulations making smart card readers mandatory to accredit voters, but there were insufficient accompanying transparency measures.
“Other procedural weaknesses continued, including with regard to checks and transparency in the results process. Severe operational shortcomings resulted in the elections being postponed by a week, just five hours before polling was due to start on 16 February.”
The report said the 2019 polls recorded transparency issues even though they were highly competitive.
Any election that cannot be freely decided by the electorate at the polls, neutrally and competently conducted by INEC, that needs the intervention of the court to judicially determine the winner, has mostly become a lottery
The mission noted, “Nigeria’s 2019 general elections were marked by severe operational and transparency shortcomings, electoral security problems, and low turnout. Positively, the elections were competitive, parties were overall able to campaign and civil society enhanced accountability.
“The leading parties were at fault in not reining in acts of violence and intimidation by supporters, and in abusing incumbency at federal and state levels.”
NEED FOR EARLY PLANNING
Also speaking with The Point, the National Coordinator, Democracy Vanguard, Adeola Soetan, said, “Any election that cannot be freely decided by the electorate at the polls, neutrally and competently conducted by INEC, that needs the intervention of the court to judicially determine the winner, has mostly become a lottery, a chance event, what Yorubas call ‘tete orire’ (a raffle draw).
He said the morality and credibility of such election might be undermined by legal technicalities and smartness of the lawyers and judges.
Soetan stressed, “My advice to INEC is to, first of all, stop pretending always that it is ready to conduct a free and fair election in the midst of all the booby traps deliberately set by politicians and successive incumbent governments to subvert its neutrality and competence.
“INEC should also be planning far ahead of time so that all the regular loopholes can be properly and timely looked into.”
He noted that for the duration of elections, INEC should be in control of security deployment. “This should be done transparently in concert with political parties, voters and civil society organisations. A revisit of the Uwais report on electoral reforms will also be helpful,” he advised.
INEC, in response to various comments and reactions to its shortcomings in the previous elections, said it had also reviewed the 2019 elections in order to determine areas requiring improvement for better outcomes in 2023.
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education, INEC, said the review would enable the Commission to determine areas requiring legislative action before the 2023 elections.
He said that INEC would work with the National Assembly to get a good legislative framework that would lead to the conduct of better elections in 2023.
He said, “We have finished what we call first state level review of the 2019 election; we have also done the review of the election with our electoral officers. We have equally done a review of the election with political parties, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.
“We are going to harvest and document all these reviews, look at the recommendations that have legislative flavour and work with the leadership of NASS to make sure we get a good legislative framework that will lead us to conduct a good election in 2023. The ones that need administrative review, we will do them administratively.”
“So, we are getting ready, there are significant lessons arising from the 2019 election; we are taking all this on board by starting our own reviews,” he added.
Okoye pointed out that the Commission had also reviewed the reports of local and international observers on the 2019 elections.
“We are looking at those reports critically, the ones that are positive, we are going to take the positive message along with us and consolidate on them. For the negative aspect of their reports, we are going to look into them and also harvest what we believe are harvestable,” he added.
Also speaking with The Point, the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said preparations for the 2023 general election would take shape gradually in the coming months.
“But before the next general election, the Commission will conduct governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states this year, and in Anambra State, next year. Our primary focus at the moment is putting the necessary measures in place to ensure free, fair and credible governorship elections in the states mentioned,” he said.
On the recommendations of the European Union Observers Mission, the INEC Chairman, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said the EU Observation Team was one of the foreign observer groups that monitored the 2019 general election and that “it has also been a strategic development partner of the Commission, offering remarkable support in various ways over the years, that have had a positive impact on the electoral system.”
