Edo Governorship Election: Politicians, INEC Must Save Democracy

The Edo Governorship Election which held on Saturday 21st September was largely reported as peaceful by the media and the civil society organisations that covered it.

Barring any cancellation of results, it is expected that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must have declared the winner by today. If any of the candidates is declared winner of the election, we urge others who feel aggrieved to follow due process and challenge the process at the court of law.

It is important that electoral disputes are resolved through the mechanism of the law to further strengthen the democratic process and ensure that the will of the people is not overturned. Any resort to self help is a threat to democracy.

In the countdown to the election, the attitude of the major political parties, especially the ruling party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party and the major opposition party, the All Progressive Congress left much to be desired. The parties gave the impression that they were going for war, with one of the parties reported as describing the contest as “do or die.”

During the campaign, the parties accused each other of planning to rig the election without providing any concrete proof. Each merely suspected the other of planning to steal the votes and even threatened electoral officials.

On election day, the parties also threw decency to the wind. They accused each other and INEC of planning to rig without any evidence beyond their mere claims. The PDP addressed a press conference accusing the APC of rigging in some parts of the state. The APC did same, with some youths of the party staging protest on the streets of Benin while collation of results was ongoing.

A video of Governor Godwin Obaseki allegedly entering a collation centre at 3am also went viral. These are acts of desperation that are capable of igniting violence and undermining the democratic process.

The most condemnable action by the political actors was claiming victory before the final collation and official announcement of the results. The two parties were guilty of this as officials all claimed to have won. Political actors must learn to be more disciplined and trust the process. Democracy is the loser when the process is undermined before conclusion.

On the part of the electoral officers, we urge more professionalism. While INEC was reported to have done fairly well within the circumstances, there were reports of malpractices in certain areas of the state allegedly aided by some unscrupulous officials and security agents.

There were also reports of possible disenfranchisement of some potential voters due to late arrival of materials. While this may not be deliberate, there’s need for INEC to avoid this recurring challenge. There is no reason why INEC must record this type of challenge in an off-season election.

INEC can correct this by employing locals who know the terrain to direct adhoc staff and ensure that materials are not taken to wrong locations.

We also urge a drastic reduction in the number of military and policemen deployed for election duties to prevent intimidation of voters. Some of them allow themselves to be used by parties or people in power to coerce and intimidate voters. There were reports that vote buying took place in some polling units in the full glare of security agents.

Above all, electronic transmission of results will eliminate tension and allegation of rigging and fraud which usually stoke up tension and violence.

INEC must review and reconcile fraudulent figures before announcing the final results and declaring a winner.

We urge politicians to save democracy by playing the game by the rules. If a winner is declared, we urge those aggrieved to challenge the results in court rather than the streets or the media. The survival of democracy in Nigeria rests on the conduct of political actors.

If they are in politics to serve the people, there should not be any desperation for power.

Edo Governorship Election: Politicians, INEC Must Save Democracy is first published on The Whistler Newspaper