Edo governorship Election logo
The Edo election has again turned out to be a case of dashed hope for the germination of democracy in the country. In the end what defined the Saturday election is not so much the victory of either of the parties; as in how the various stakeholders failed to work for democracy, which has made the conduct, procedure, process and possibly the outcome of the poll to be nothing but a disgraceful reenactment of sham elections we have known since the beginning of the electoral process in the country.
YIAGA Africa and other observers have come up with damning reports of vote buying, electoral materials reaching polling units late in some areas, politicians impeding the process in some polling units, to the extent that even the outgoing governor was forced to march to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Benin when information got to him of possible maneuver towards manipulation only to be forced out of the office on the order of the deputy inspector general of police who was the head of the security team to monitor the election.
The Edo election is reportedly beset with flagrant violations of electoral rules and brazen assault on democratic processes. On Sunday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appealed to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to review the collated results for the Edo governorship election before the final announcement.
Dr Anthony Aziegbemi, PDP Edo State Chairman, informed newsmen in Benin that the entries the electoral officers made were different from the actual results uploaded on the INEC IREV at the polling units.
Aziegbemi noted that the results had allegedly been inflated in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) through deducted votes from the PDP.
He alleged that in Akoko-Edo, votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV showed that the APC obtained 25,010 while 34,847 votes were recorded in the EC8C declared by the local government returning officer.
“While for the PDP, the results uploaded on the IREV is 18,620 but 15,865 was recorded on the EC8C declared by the returning officer.
“It would interest you to know that in ward 9, Akoko Edo LGA, from the 36 polling units results uploaded on the IREV, the total votes obtained by APC is 2,350 while 9,104 was entered into the EC8C result for APC.
”The total votes for PDP is 1,359 while 633 was entered in the EC8C.
“Also, in Ward six Akoko Edo, where elections did not hold in units 12, 17, 15, 18, 14 and 16, results were returned for the said polling units in the ward result sheet (EC8C),” he said.
Also in Egor, Aziegbemi alleged that votes recorded in the polling unit results uploaded on the IREV showed that the APC obtained 10,972 votes while 16,760 votes was recorded in the EC8C declared.
“While for the PDP, the results uploaded on the IREV is 14,485 but 14,658 was returned on the EC8C declared by the local government returning officer.
”It would interest you to note that the collation of Egor was not done at the designated LGA centre but was moved to the INEC state headquarters and the PDP agent was not allowed access to be part of the exercise,” he added.
According to him, there are also similar discrepancies in Etsako West where results uploaded on the IREV are totally different from the results recorded on the EC8C declared by the returning officer.
He said: “The above highlighted irregularities which are very apparent are extremely scandalous and a brazen attempt to steal the mandate of the PDP.
“We, therefore, demand the immediate re-collation and recompilation of the actual results for the various polling units in the above highlighted local government areas.
“In compliance with the INEC guidelines and regulations, which mandates that votes from various units and wards be properly collated”
Earlier, PDP had cause to call for redeployment of INEC electoral commissioner in the state who is said to be a cousin to Nyesom Wike, the Federal Capital Territory minister, fearing partisanship. Besides, the party raised a point of concerns as it noted that some electoral officers allegedly had APC sympathy. All these were ignored by INEC, this calls into question the outcome of the polls.
NATIONAL WAVES is saddened to note that politicians have found it difficult to allow the people to make informed decision and electoral choices but have continued the tradition of vote buying. Nigerian politicians out of desperation are a most undemocratic class of people who want power and authority without consent of the people. By buying votes to come to power the issue of legitimacy is automatically out of the equation.
It would seem the electorates have learnt nothing over the years. By selling their votes as witnessed in Edo, the people of the state will have no moral right to complain if the candidate thrown up through corruption of money turns out to be a nightmare for the citizens. Power belongs to the people, and one way of exercising it is to vote rightly and conscientiously.
The complex reality of our precarious political system is that both the electorate and politicians are always in bed together to subvert political process and democracy through bazaar that elections have turned out to be.
There are reports which seem to portray security operatives sent to Edo in bad light of political partisanship. NATIONAL WAVES views this with some sense of apprehension and disappointment. This becomes heightened when set against the backdrop of assurances by security agencies of better behaviour and impartiality on the part of their operatives.
NATIONAL WAVES calls for a radical change of mindset of all stakeholders from the INEC to the electorate to the politicians and the security operatives in charge of security and monitoring of future election. This democracy is too old to be crawling towards a precipice. All stakeholders must hold themselves to account if the country must get it right. The Edo election is not an encouraging signal in that direction.
