Bayelsa Guber: INEC integrity under scrutiny over choice of manual transmission

As Nigeria prepares for the off-season elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States, several citizens have voiced concerns about the legitimacy of the voting in those states.

This comes after INEC announced recently that it will be manually transmitting results from the upcoming governorship election in Bayelsa on November 11.

State INEC REC Mr. Obo Effanga reportedly informed religious leaders and faith-based organizations in Yenagoa of the commission’s decision during an interactive meeting, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and cited by InfoStride News.

REC Effanga assured the participants of the interactive meeting that only voters who had been accredited by BVAS would be permitted to cast ballots, and that INEC was prepared to hold free, fair, and credible elections.

You may begin voting as soon as you are handed a ballot.

The PVC collection period has entered its fourth week and will conclude on October 11th. He advised those voters who still haven’t picked up their IDs visit the INEC office in their respective county.

Many Nigerians are unhappy with the Commission’s decision, and some have even called it a major setback.

Many have called the effective deployment of the BVAS and adoption of electronic transmission of election results by the INEC in Ekiti, Osun, and Anambra States a “game changer,” and InfoStride News reminds us of this fact. The Electoral Act 2023 was largely enacted as a result of the successful use of technology in those elections.

Furthermore, the electoral commission guaranteed Nigerians that electronic transmission of election results would take place before the 2023 general elections. However, this did not materialize during the course of the presidential campaign.

However, recent judicial rulings have established that the commission has the authority to determine the method of transmitting election results.

The results of the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections will no longer be uploaded electronically from the polling stations to the Results Viewing Portal (IReV), as reported by InfoStride News. This decision was made by the Federal High Court.

The three-judge panel (Justices Abubakar Umar, Olukayode Bada, and Onyekachi Otisi) found that INEC has broad discretion in deciding how to transfer or transmit election results.

However, the Supreme Court is currently hearing petitions from presidential candidates Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), so the debate over the electronic transmission of election results is far from over.

After collecting nearly N355 billion for the conduct of the 2023 presidential poll, Atiku and Obi claim that the INEC violated provisions of the revised Electoral Act by neglecting to electronically submit the results of the election.

Both candidates found fault with INEC’s explanation that technological issues prevented results from being posted to the INEC Result Viewing, IReV, portal.

Meanwhile, CSLAC has criticized INEC for not automating the transmission of the Guber election results on November 11.

The group claimed it was a last-ditch effort by politicians to influence voters’ choices.

The organization added that it considered transparent election procedures, such as the prompt and correct transmission of results, to be crucial to the legitimacy of any election.

Executive Director of CSLAC Auwal Rafsanjan expressed his deep concern over the situation in an interview with Arise Television’s News show on Monday.

”Whoever is behind this attempt to return us to analogue voting, it’s simply apparent they didn’t wish for us to have transparent, free, fair, and trustworthy elections,” Rafsanjani said.

He urged that the electoral body and the government should face the problem of Nigerians’ and the world community’s worries about a small number of power-hungry individuals.

He claims that people in Nigeria have come to appreciate the use of technology in the voting process after the government spent billions of naira on its deployment.

According to him, this is a major worry for everyone who wants democracy to thrive in the United States. Free, fair, and credible elections are essential to the long-term health of Nigeria’s democracy.

And if those in power in Nigeria are trying to sabotage fair and legitimate elections, that is a direct attack on democracy.

Many Nigerians are still suffering to make ends meet, and they haven’t seen the dividend of democracy yet because it’s been hijacked by those who don’t want credible elections in their nation.

Therefore, they are actively working against any effort at transparency that may give the Nigerian people faith in their election system.

For instance, the Nigerian government invested billions of naira towards using technology in the country’s voting system. And we have witnessed the benefits of incorporating technology into our voting procedure.

”All of a sudden, certain people who are trying to take power start making desperate efforts that all the billions of naira we have spent to deploy technology are useless.

I think it sends a very clear message that those people didn’t want Nigerians to have a solid democracy; didn’t want Nigerians to have a free, fair, and credible election; didn’t want Nigerians to participate in the electoral process in the country if they are now trying to draw us back and do manual election after the huge success that we have made to ensure that we minimise rigging and double voting.

Due to the machinations of some desperate politicians and their accomplices in other government agencies, fraudulent elections and electoral violence occur, making it impossible to achieve the necessary democracy and stabilization in the electoral process.

To assure Nigerians that INEC will deliver on its promise of holding free, fair, and credible elections using technology to eliminate multiple voting and ensure electronic transmission of results, it took civil society organizations, particularly transition monitoring groups, to mobilize the population.

“At the end of the day, we are now witnessing what desperate politicians and government officials are doing: squandering public tax payers’ money to revert to an analogue process that is easier for them to influence and hijack.

So, in my opinion, whoever is behind this effort to bring us back to paper ballots clearly didn’t want us to have open, free, fair, and legitimate elections.

And since Nigerians are already disillusioned and don’t believe the country is doing what it promised to do in order to have free, fair, and credible elections, this is likely to discourage even more people from taking part.

Concern from Nigerians and the world community has prompted the electoral body and the government to step up to the plate. A minority of power-hungry individuals who seek it just for their own ends cannot force us to abandon our digital advancements and revert to analogue methods.

A collection of pro-democracy civil society organizations in Nigeria has also spoken out against the plan to hand compile election results.

The groups urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to guarantee fast and accurate election results and transparency in the conduct of the governorship election in Bayelsa State on November 11.

After a meeting in Abuja, they released a statement detailing their stance. Olufemi Lawson, the National Secretary of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), and Atani John, the leader of the Niger Delta Democratic Vanguard, both signed the document.

The transparency of the electoral process, especially the accuracy and timeliness of the transmission of results, is crucial to the integrity and credibility of any election, say civil society organizations.

“Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has on Wednesday stated it plans to transmit results of the November 11 Bayelsa governorship election manually,” the coalition added. This information was released by the State’s REC, Mr. Obo Effanga.

Electors’ faith in the electoral process, as well as that of Nigerians and the international community, would be severely damaged if electronic transmission of results were abandoned.

“Electronic transmission of election results has been shown to be an effective technique in combating electoral fraud, increasing accountability, and providing the public with more precise and timely information. It makes the voting process more open and less susceptible to manipulation or meddling at different points.

We call on INEC to respect the values of openness and accountability in the next governorship election in Bayelsa State and encourage them to reject their current plan.

To safeguard the integrity of the voting process, we urge INEC to continue and strengthen the use of electronic transmission of results.

Concern has also been voiced by the Good Governance Advocacy Group (GGAG), a civil society organization.

Godwin Ebiware, the GGAG Coordinator, issued a statement in which he expressed surprise at the lack of an explanation from the INEC Commissioner over the commission’s decision to hand compile the results.

“The Federal Government spent billions of naira to secure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), but out of a hidden agenda by the political parties in Bayelsa, in connivance with the Independent National Electoral Commission, it has decided to abandon the electronic transmission of the November 11 election results in real-time,” Ebiware said.

The spokesman for the Forum of State Chairmen of the NNPP, Dada Olayinka Olabode, condemned the INEC’s decision as an attempt to put wool over the eyes of the Nigerians in an interview with the media.

Olabode claimed that INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu had no plausible explanation for the failure to implement a component of the election system that had been pushed for by the people and legislated for by the National Assembly.

He demanded that his countrymen lobby INEC to change its mind, so that the results of the Bayelsa guber election and the staggered elections in Imo and Kogi might be sent in real time.

”The most crucial factor in every election, anywhere in the world, is the legitimacy of the procedure,” he remarked.

The processes, protocols, logistics, personnel, and final tallying of any election’s results all come first.

The people are essential to holding a successful election. Ultimately, it is up to the populace to decide who will serve as their leader. Therefore, the people’s interest should be the primary concern.

When INEC has spent so much money on acquiring technology that could transmit the result of an election in real time, only to abandon it in favor of the same manual process that was fraught with irregularities, complaints, and litigations in the past, it is understandable that the people’s morale would take a hit.

Why did we have to waste taxpayer money on acquiring these technologies that would have prevented arguments of irregularities and also litigations that cost so much money and bring bad blood into our communities and societies as a result of the non credible conduct of elections?

“INEC under Prof Mahmood Yakubu cannot be blamed for the credibility of our electoral system’s preparations, which cost tens of billions of naira.”

You may remember that the failure to transmit election results was a major source of frustration for Nigerians after the last general election in 2023. What exactly was the INEC’s justification for this? INEC admitted there were problems.

Are those kinks still being worked out? The United States is about to hold stargard elections. This is extremely discouraging.

“I will advise that whatever makes the INEC not to be able to transmit electronic election results in real time so that citizens will monitor results as it leaves their polling unit — elections are conducted at the polling unit — whatever makes citizens not be able to monitor election results emanating from their polling unit real time have taken away the credibility of that election.”

When asked by DAILY POST, Yunusa Tanko, a spokesperson for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council (LP-PCC), said the party would abide by the law and do what was best for the people if elected.

Tanko described the INEC’s return to the old method as totally unacceptable and suggested there may be another issue with the process.

Because the Electoral Act did away with this particular manual transmission in order to legitimize the election, we may have to challenge that position.

And if INEC is going back to the old method, it suggests there may be another problem with this procedure, which is unacceptable.

You know we’re still fighting that ruling in the Supreme Court.

When we feel our rights have been violated, we typically file lawsuits in court to stop what we know to be illegal practices.

“And some of the problems we had with the INEC were the processes or ways in which they handled the election, having promised Nigerians that they would do justice and fairness to every of the actions that they promised Nigerians. Unfortunately, they did not live to their promise.

‘‘Therefore, as far as we are concerned, as democrats, we shall respect the rule of law and order. We will follow the correct proceeding and ensure that the right thing is done for the people.’