Fresh Threats To Polls

With the continuing success being recorded by Nigerian troops against terrorism in the Northeastern part of the country which has led to the recovery of towns and local governments from the insurgents, as well as the 81% success said to have been achieved so far in the distribution of permanent voter’s card, the issues which formerly threatened the conduct of the 2015 elections have given way to yet new challenges and threats.

First in the line of emerging fresh threats to the polls was the recent judgement of a Federal High Court sitting in the nation’s capital city of Abuja, which ordered the electoral body to register a new political party, Young Democratic Party, YDP. Suspected supporters of the re-election bid of President Jonathan are believed to be behind the new party with the game plan being to use the registration of the Young Democratic Party, to scuttle the forthcoming polls and force INEC to start fresh plans for the election to accommodate the new party in the programme. But this was thwarted following the denial by the court that its orders for the registration of the new party does not in any way imply that the election schedule be disrupted.

An angry Justice Mohammed expressed displeasure over the misinterpretation of his decision, noting that the court was embarrassed by claims of officials of the newly registered party at a press conference it held in Abuja, that he ordered INEC to shift the 2015 elections in order to accommodate the party in the polls. He directed the party’s lawyer, Mr. Kelvin Nwofo, to investigate the issue and ensure all the party officials who addressed the March 5 conference were brought before the court on 23 March. The judgment of the court only directed INEC to register the party, without any directive for the party to be accommodated in the forthcoming general elections.

The judge berated officials of the new party and summoned them to appear before him on 23 March, for misinterpreting his ruling by claiming that he ordered INEC to accommodate the party in the forthcoming general elections. The electoral body had appealed the judgement of the Federal High Court before a Court of Appeal in the Abuja Division and filed a notice of stay of execution before the court. These steps took the sail off the plans of truncating the rescheduled election with the YDP game plan.

Soon after the tension generated by the mischievous interpretation of the court judgement by officials of the new party were doused by the court, desperate presidential hawks quickly shifted tactics to achieve their objectives of further shifting the polls. This time, the attack focused on INEC’s proposed use of electronic card readers for accreditation of voters during the polls.

A chieftain of the the President’s party, the PDP, Chief Waliu Taiwo, initiated the first move when he dragged the electoral body before a federal court in Lagos seeking to stop INEC from using electronic card readers during the general election. Taiwo, who is the party’s candidate for the Ogun West senatorial district, claims that INEC’s guidelines which stipulate the use of card readers is unconstitutional and should be nullified. He particularly faulted section 12 (c) of the guidelines which states that “in the event that the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) fails to be read by the Card Reader, the APO (assistant presiding officer)…shall file a report of the incident; inform the voter of the problem and that he/she cannot be accredited; and politely request the voter to leave the polling zone.”

He contended that this is the first time anywhere in the world where a device such as the card reader as proposed to be used by INEC would be used to the effect that it supercedes the content of the register of voters properly compiled by the electoral body. And on this basis, he urged the court to grant an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the electoral umpire from proceeding with its proposed plan to use the card readers for the purpose of determining those who can vote. He made the call for the court to compel the agency to comply with the Electoral Act 2010 and the 1999 Constitution by relying only on the voters register and identifying voters with their voter cards.

The electoral body had insisted on using the electronic card readers for the polls in line with its commitment to delivering a fair and credible polls. On 7 March, the commission embarked on a mock trial of the device in 225 polling units and 358 voting points across 12 wards in 12 states of the federation selected from the six geopolitical zones of the country. The wards were in Port Harcourt city in Rivers state, Abakaliki in Ebonyi state, Ado Ekiti in Ekiti state, Gassol in Taraba state, Kumbotso in Kano state and Bunza in Kebbi state.Others were in Kokona in Nasarawa state, Shiroro in Niger state, Ikeja in Lagos state, Aguata in Anambra state, Oshimili South in Delta, and Jama’ar in Bauchi state.

Varied outcomes however greeted the exercise, with excellent performance of the electronic devices recorded in many of the selected areas while reports of failures and malfunctions of the machines were recorded in others. In Port Harcourt, the United Nations observers led by Mrs. Eno Udensi who monitored the exercise expressed satisfaction with their performance. “The machines are working. Even though the thumb-printing is failing in most cases, the face of registered voters appears on the card reader. Some came with oily hands that make their cards difficult to read. While it took about one or two minutes for the card reader to okay one person, a particular person had to wait for 15 minutes before the card reader was able to read his thumb print. But the photographs are showing on the card readers,” she stated after monitoring the exercise.

At Ekiti state, the European Union Election Observers; Mrs Rumi Ana Decheva and Mr Uros Urstga who monitored the exercise in the state commended INEC for the initiativem, noting that it would help in adding credibility to the country’s electoral process. According to Decheva, the practicability of these machines has been confirmed as each voter spent less than five seconds to be accredited. She observed that contrary to insinuations, it is not going to waste time.

The INEC boss, Jega, had further stated that with the adoption of permanent voter cards for the elections, over four million multiple voters had been successfully eliminated from voters’ register. Jega disclosed this during an INEC organised Town Hall meeting with some stakeholders recently in Abuja where he added that he would ensure that multiple voting that characterized previous elections were disallowed in the forthcoming elections. “We feel confident, although someone came with a cloned card but unfortunately the card reader didn’t read it. If we use the temporary voter cards, more than 4 million people will come and say they’ve been disenfranchised, that’s why we have decided to use the PVC. It is unfortunate that this fraudulent act was exploited by our politicians who will come and carry ballot boxes, and at the end of the day, somebody would have voted for 20 times. With this new system, there is no opportunity for someone to commit such fraudulent acts,” he stated.

However, despite these success reports, the ruling party appears to be banking on the courts to jettison the use of the electronic device. Following the Lagos suit filed by Chief Waliu Taiwo against the use of the card readers, four political parties which are working for the re election of President Jonathan have also approached Justice Adeniyi Ademola of a federal high court in Abuja seeking an exparte order to stop INEC from using the electronic device. The parties are United Democratic Party, UDP, Action Alliance, AA, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN and Alliance for Democracy, AD.

The Peoples Democratic Party and the opposition All Progressive Congress have been trading blames over the usage of the electronic card readers for the polls. Lagos state Governor, Babatunde Fashola of the APC, had accused the federal government of being afraid of defeat in their cries against the card readers. “The PDP-led government is afraid of defeat that is why they are kicking against the use of card reader. Jonathan’s government funded and promoted the idea of PVC when INEC proposed it. Now, having realised that it will be difficult for them to rig the election if the card reader is used, the party wants to change the rules at the middle of the game,” Fashola said.

•Fashola: PDP cannot rig with card readers

On its part, the PDP has stated that it is not against the use of the electronic device. Vice President Namadi Sambo, at an interactive session in Kano State recently, noted that the PDP was not against the use of the card reader. “The controversial card reader should be observed as not having the capacity to deter the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the forthcoming general election. The party is not afraid of anything, not even card reader.” he stated.

The Vice President reiterated that the party still stands behind President Jonathan’s policy of one man one vote. “Free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria are the slogan of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his administration. We are also much interested in freedom of information, and that is why we signed into law the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA,” Sambo said.

The Deputy National Chairman of PDP, Mr. Uche Secondus, had also tried to explain the position of his party over the card reader. “The PDP position as a party as regards the Card Readers is that it must be tested and perfected before being deployed for the elections. The PDP is not against Card Readers. The PDP believes that INEC should test it and it should be in perfect condition, so that we don’t run into problems; so that on that day we don’t have problems of it working in some areas and in other areas it won’t work. I mean these are human feelings across not just PDP but the entire country. Since it is the first time we will adopt this technology, it should be in perfect condition so that people will not have cause to complain. This is the position of the party and I want to make it clear to Nigerians that the PDP is not against the Card Reader but we urge INEC to test run them so that they will be in perfect condition on the day of election,” Secondus explained.

•Secondus: Card readers must be tested and perfected

Adding to these emerging roadblocks to the polls, is the decision of the electoral umpire to void votes at any polling station across the nation where incidence of stolen card readers is reported. This is causing some concerns about the import of such action against the overall results of the polls. The INEC boss had disclosed, during a town hall event with civil society groups in Abuja, that any polling unit where the card readers are stolen would result in the voiding of the votes of that particular polling unit.“If people snatch card readers, it is sufficient grounds to cancel elections in those places,” he said.

He also allayed fears expressed in some quarters that fingerprints not captured will lead to voters being disenfranchised despite having PVCs and stated that anyone who has registered and has a PVC will be allowed to vote.