Some returning and collation officers in the 2019 general elections say reforms are needed in the nation’s electoral system to deepen democracy. PATRICK ANDREW reports.
Why electoral law needs tinkering with
The involvement of university teachers in the conduct of the nation’s election to some extent is to ensure some levels of credibility in the exercise. And so having participated and observed the inhibiting problems therein, they could speak with a measure of competence on the issues hindering the smooth conduct of elections in the country.
Therefore when two dons spoke on the sideline of the ongoing Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 2019 State Level Post Election Review in Lagos, it became necessary to consider their views- wart and all- beyond mere speculation or flimsy note.
In respect of the exercise in Lagos – a retreat that had in attendance INEC management staff, including heads of departments, electoral officers and their assistants, and some collation officers in the state in the 2019 elections, it surely afforded the participants ample opportunity to ventilate as it were their differing observations, views and then proffer solutions by way of suggestions.
Interestingly, recurrent in their observations and suggestions are the inevitability of rejigging aspects of the nation’s electoral laws or in some cases out right surgical operation on some clauses or specific conduct expected from INEC officials, political actors and even the electorate in and around the venues of the exercise.
Besides, this surgical could affect specific mandate to the electoral umpire on what should and ought not be in respect of actions patterning to transparency in the collation and transmission of collated results to respective authorized centres for the eventual overall transmission for national consumption. All these specifically to assist in the conduct of election that could reasonably be accorded some levels of credibility, and therefore generally accepted as fair and transparent.
Views from ivory tower
According to the two dons that volunteered their insight into the problems of the nation’s electoral system, if the nation wants to grow its democracy, there is the need to thinker with its electoral system.
For instance, Prof Adebayo Otitoloju , the Returning Officer for Lagos East Senatorial Election, said: “There is need for some form of reforms.
“I will advocate reforms that will lead to e-collation, not e-voting, that is a collation that will start from the polling units.
“We can upgrade the smart card readers to be able to start that process, and once that is done, most of our elections challenges will be removed completely. Logistics is a major challenge.”
Further, the professor cautioned the INEC to take logistics issues more seriously than it is presently doing stressing particularly the transportation of ad-hoc staff from polling units to collation centres. “That was really a challenge to people, and created a lot of problems,’’ he said.
Large number of parties an issue
On calls for reduction in the number of political parties in the country, Otitoloju said that it was a good idea, to eliminate complexity. He added that there must be conditions before parties should be allowed to participate in presidential and governorship elections.
The don suggested that any party that would participate at the presidential level must contest for at least 50 per cent seats in the National Assembly and at least in 12 states. Otitoloju added that similar conditions should be applicable to gubernatorial elections.
According to him, INEC should find a way to checkmate abuse of the system that allows parties which cannot win a seat in a state Assembly to contest at the governorship and presidential levels.
On e-voting, Otitoloju, said that he did not believe in it much due to the ‘nightmares’ that might occur.
“What device are we going to use? How big is it going to be? How many of it? How is it going to be used? A lot of the voters may not be able to operate the machines; it is like operating a computer.
“It means in essence that a lot of people will have to be taken through the process to know what to do, looking for which party they are going to vote for on the electronic screen. I think that will take a lot from us, it will take some time,’’ he said.
Voter education
Associate Prof Johnson Adewara, a Collation and Returning Officer in Ojo and Surulere LGAs, said that the reforms were necessary.
Adewara, an Associate of Professor of Statistics, also called for a massive voter education. “There is the need for a reform in our Electoral Act; many reforms need to be done.
“There must be a very strict law to also address vote buying to make the world to know that we are meant for business in Nigeria.
“If these laws are not reviewed, we are just joking, we have not meant a very serious business as far as our election process is concerned,’’ he said.
The university teacher also supported the call for reduction in the number of political parties in the country.
Adewara said: “Any political parties that cannot feed up to about 12 to 15 governorship candidates should not be allowed to contest in the presidential election.
“In the last election, a lot of registered political parties could not have up to 10 votes or 20 votes in some constituencies and local governments.
“Why should we continue to waste our resources over a political party that cannot even feed up to 20 people for state Assembly and feed governorship candidates in 20 states?’’
Reps to prioritise reforms
Apparently acting in sync with the yearnings and desire of the people for necessary reforms, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, says the 9th house will embrace speedy reforms of the electoral process to facilitate credible elections and thus boost Nigeria’s democratic stride.
Gbajabiamila, who spoke while receiving the European Union Election Observer team on Nigeria and ECOWAS in Abuja last Tuesday, assured that Nigeria is ready to act in tune with the international best practices in the conduct of election.
According to him, election being the bedrock of democracy must be conducted in a manner to instill confidence, boost reliable on the electoral processes and therefore strengthen for and attainment of good governance.
“Nigeria is ready to always follow International best practices. I commend the fact that there has been improvement in Nigerian electoral process but more needs to be done.
“Parliament will hit the ground running in terms of electoral reforms as the process of elections is before, during and after the elections. Election is the bedrock of any democracy and there is the desire to get the process right,” he said in a statement signed by his media aide, Smart Olanrewaju.
He assured the union of the parliament’s readiness to work closer to achieve the best results possible for the Nigerian people. He promised to ensure continued harmonious working relationship between Nigeria and the EU.
Observation team
Though the EU team acknowledged there were improvements relating to elections in Nigeria, the Deputy Chief Observer, Hannah Roberts, said further effort are needed to raise the bar of electoral system. They recommended 30 basic reforms that must be worked on to correct obvious shortcomings.
“They are, ensuring a more robust way to check results of polls, stronger transparency in voting process, better operational reform on the part of INEC. There is also need for more security coordination between the different relevant agencies,” she said.
Ms Roberts said the involvement of women in the electoral process was low as Nigeria seemed to be at the bottom in female participation in politics in Africa.
The observer said the Election Tribunals should also cover election processes so that they could be adequately informed when handling petitions after the election process.
She said there was need for improvement of the process used to issue the licenses for media covering election processes in order to get the required divergence.
