Political analysts opine that cases of inconclusive elections in the country are rampant in Nigeria in recent times.
They observe that inconclusive elections occurred recently in governorship elections in Taraba, Imo, Kogi, Bayelsa, Plateau, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and in the FCT Area Council elections, among others.
While critics attribute the development to incompetence on the part of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), perceptive stakeholders insist that INEC has become more meticulous and compliant with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
This observation notwithstanding, analysts note that elections, in recent times, have become keener with the introduction of some values and checks to the country’s electoral system.
According to them, each vote now counts more than ever which, in most cases necessitates a second round of balloting.
Citing examples, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, said that an inconclusive election would occur when no candidate met the condition for the declaration of a winner of the election after polls.
At recent stakeholders’ forum on electoral reforms and inconclusive elections organised by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) in Abuja, he said that a candidate must satisfy all conditions stipulated by law to be declared a winner.
“He or she must satisfy all legal requirements, score the majority of lawful votes cast at the election in which all eligible voters have been given the opportunity to exercise their franchise.
“Where no candidate satisfies this requirement, the election is said to be inconclusive,’’ he insisted.
Represented by Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, a director in the commission, he said Section 26 of the Electoral Act provides that where an election is scheduled, but there is likely to be a serious breach of the peace or it is impossible to continue with the election, INEC should postpone the election.
Quoting Sub-Section 26 (2) of the Electoral Act, he said: “there shall be no return for the election until polling has taken place in the area or areas affected.’’
The INEC boss noted that Sub-Section 4 of Section 26 stipulated a proviso that a declaration might be made if the result in the affected areas would not affect the overall outcome of the election.
“ Sub-Section 5 of the section grants focus to any of the candidates to challenge INEC’s decision in this regard.
“In Section 53 (2) (Over voting), when the votes cast at an election in any polling unit exceeds the number of registered voters in that polling unit, the result of the election for that polling unit shall be declared void by the Commission.
“Another election may be conducted at a date to be fixed by the commission where the result at that poling unit may affect the overall result in the constituency,’’ he said.
Yakubu said that from the statutory provisions, inconclusive elections could also arise out of natural disaster or other emergency such as violence, threats or breakdown of law and order and over voting, among others.
He said that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) recognised that elections could be inconclusive and made provision for what should happen in such cases.
In his view, Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, Chairman, Partners for Electoral Reform, a coalescing part of ISDMG, said that politicians were sensationalising the phrase “inconclusive elections’’ to smear INEC.
According to him, politicians have to portray the commission as incompetent and vilify it for upholding the values of integrity and for daring to introduce and improve on the positive reforms it inherited.
Nwagwu said that INEC had conducted 129 elections in the last six months and still have 31 more by July as it inherited 49 re-run in 16 states.
He listed some of the challenges confronting the commission as the late arrival of election materials, violence, lack of technical capacity of the ad- hoc staff, under age voting, lack of adequate enlightenment for prospective voters and unfavourable terrain.
Nwagwu solicited the creation of electoral offences commission as recommended by the Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Committee, observing that such commission would enable INEC to perform creditably.
“The most relevant one will be election offences commission and the reason for that is that people commit offences during elections and they are never punished.
“After the 2011 election violence in Bauchi State and Akwa Ibom, the government set up the Justice Sheik Lemu Electoral Disturbances Committee.
“It came out with a recommendation; government has the white paper and the white paper said that those who killed corps members in Bauchi should be prosecuted.
“But since then, nobody has been prosecuted; if we have an electoral offences commission, it will focus on dealing with offences that were committed during elections,’’ he observed.
He said that with such a commission in existence, people rigging elections would know that they would be tried and penalised and probably go to jail and it would be a deterrent.
In his view, the ISDMG’s Executive Director, Dr Chima Amadi, said that issues of logistics during election could be reconciled, but violence, killing and other vices should not be encouraged.
He implored INEC to make sure that administrative lapses, such as late arrival of materials, were reduced to the barest minimum.
Similarly, Mr Ledum Mittee, a legal practitioner, called for the establishment of a department for electoral laws in INEC.
By and large, analysts insist that stakeholders in the electoral process — INEC, political parties and the electorate — should play the game by the rules and prevent inconclusive elections in Nigeria.
By Chijioke Okoronkwo, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
