Politics
By Kennedy Nnamani
THE Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, has said that the results of its analysis on the just concluded controversial presidential and National Assembly elections showed that some existential factors shaped the outcome of the February 25 election.
In its report termed “Understanding the 2023 Nigerian Presidential and National Assembly Elections, the group said that six interconnected variables which shaped the outcome of the election were Identity, Insecurity, Institutions, Information disorder, Intra and inter party contestation and infrastructure.
According to the report, there were Election Day operational challenges which cut across late arrival of officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in some regions, especially in the Southeast.
CDD attributed this to personal safety and the fact that two-third of the attacks recorded on INEC facilities prior to the election were from this region.
It added that in some cases, officials arrived as late as 14:30hrs which is close to the hours that polling units were officially due to close.
The group pointed to some technical issues emanating from malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS.
“Despite training delivered to all INEC ad-hoc staff on the use of the new technology tools, recruitment shortcomings and ongoing capacity gaps affected its effective deployment,” the group noted.
Most of the acutely affected regions, as presented by the report, were in the Northwest; it was noted, in this region that accreditations were done even when individuals were not captured using the BVAS, which contravenes the provisions of the Electoral Act.
Also captured in the report was the disregard to the primacy of results from BVAS which was observed from across the federation.
“This was particularly predominant in the northeast, with 42.7% of observers recording a malfunction, but was also high in the northwest (28.7%),” the report revealed
However, the report remarked that “INEC’s contingency planning was broadly effective, with more than two-third of the technical hitches resolved within one hour, and where the technology was working accreditation happened at a good pace.” While in some instances the malfunctioning of the reader created long delays for all those queuing to vote.
“For example, in Ile-Bale polling unit (002) in Ajase-Ipo ward, Irepodun local government area (LGA), Kwara state, many prospective voters waited for more than three hours due to malfunctioning BVAS machines,” it added.
Furthermore, there was a disregard to the uploading of results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV Portal, which was designed to provide real-time transmission of election results from Form EC 80A, from polling units to the central collation centre in an attempt to enhance the transparency of the electoral process and reduce the incidence of vote rigging and election manipulation
The group observed that as at 21:00 on the Election Day, “there were no results uploaded to the platform for the presidential election.
“By 11:00 hrs on Monday 27, February, just 53,154 polling unit results out of a total of 176,734 were publicly available on the platform despite the legal requirement that results should be uploaded to the platform as soon as they are declared at the polling unit level.”
Also in the report were the hitches encountered by People with Disabilities, PWDs despite allocations made by INEC through a targeted approach based on an assessment of the voter register.
Although Section 54(2) of the 2022 Electoral Act made provision for access for persons with disability, it was also recorded that fewer than 20 percent of polling units had specialised equipment for PWDs
On a lighter note, CDD recognized that despite well-documented instances of insecurity, fuel scarcity and cash crunch, Nigerians, especially the youths, still turned up to vote, however many were disenfranchised.
The group therefore added that the election suggests that ethnic identity remains an important factor shaping voter preference in Nigeria.
It also noted that although vote buying reduced, it was still recorded in some regions with Northwest leading with 18 per cent, while Southwest followed with 12 percent with All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party contributing massively to these numbers
“For the most part, vote buying appears to be the preserve of the two major parties in the last two elections – the All Progressive Congress, APC, and People’s Democratic Party, PDP, – with the Labour Party’s becoming a political party of note at a time when there is scarcity of cash,” it noted.
CDD also remarked that there was the use of food and household items in exchange for votes in places like Kwara, Imo and Bayelsa states, while in Lagos, it was recorded that there were cases of bank transfers under the guise of “business assistance schemes”, ostensibly a creative way to buy voters given the limitations on the availability of cash.
In the report, the group submitted some cases of violence and voter intimidations recorded across the country, but mostly in the Northwest, Southsouth, Southwest and Southeast.
For example, it was the report recorded that in Anambra, party agents were seen standing beside the voting cubicle directing voters as to how they should cast their ballot in full view of INEC ad-hoc staff.
Also recorded were intimidations centred around ethnic identity as well as vandalism and destruction and sounds of gunshots which were noticed in Lagos state, while in some states like Imo and Anambra, BVAS machines were targeted.
Meanwhile, as INEC, security operatives and other stakeholders were trying quell tension, there were ample online falsehoods such videos proven to have been from the 2019 general election campaign where Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party was seen campaigning for Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the PDP.
The group therefore called on INEC to have a more proactive communication, dedicated and prompt page for communicating updates, decisions, positions around election days.
It also recommended an open and honest and detailed explanation, while conducting an independent transparent review to evaluate its performances.
It is pertinent to know that the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, is an independent, not-for-profit, research training, advocacy and capacity building organisation with the purpose to mobilise global opinion and resources for democratic development and provide an independent space to reflect critically on the challenges posed to the democratisation and development processes in West Africa.
KN
Tags: Atiku Abubakar Centre for Democracy and Development Kennedy Nnamani Labour Party Peter Obi
