Can INEC rise from the dust?

Not many people expected what happened in Anambra on Saturday, November 16, 2013, the sham the gubernatorial election turned out to be, not with the much-trumpeted preparation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

For several months, the commission dominated news holes in both print and electronic media, speaking about its programme for the gubernatorial election in Anambra State. But after all said and done, the exercise was largely bungled. The exercise was fraught with many irregularities, and the leadership of the commission in Abuja has since acknowledged its failure.

The development has put a question mark on the ability of INEC to conduct a successful general election in 2015.

The consensus opinion currently is that it may be near impossible for the electoral umpire to deliver to Nigerians a credible election since it could not deliver on the Anambra poll. For instance, how could INEC claim that the total number of accredited voters was 451,826 in a state with 1,763,751 registered voters? What went wrong? Yet the commission went ahead to cancel about 113,113 votes.

We gathered that the noticeable irregularities that marred the exercise were late arrival of voting materials to voting units, swapping of voters’ registers and election result sheets, and outright failure to send election materials to certain areas until very late in the day. These all targeted at disenfranchising voters in some parts of the state. It was also said that the commission’s database of voters’ register was said to have been tampered with by unknown persons before the exercise.

The election has since been declared inconclusive by the electoral body, what the commission does with the rescheduled election in the affected areas of Anambra is the thrust of this editorial. Has INEC learnt any lesson from its obvious laxity? How is it planning to redeem its credibility by conducting a near-perfect exercise next time around?

Attahiru Jega, the commission boss, has since admitted that Okeke Chukwujekwu, his staff who worked as a returning officer in Idemili North “messed up” as he deliberately refused to ensure delivery of electoral materials to certain areas, causing the postponement of the exercise to next day, he must also tell the country those behind the man and many other elections he had frustrated.

Now that the alleged rigger has been apprehended and is telling the police all he knows about the fraud he is being alleged of perpetrating, the question is, can INEC muster enough courage to ensure the erring officer is thoroughly punished because of some powerful connections and those who may have sponsored the fraud?

Over the years, the inability of the system to punish those who willfully go contrary to the laws of the land may have emboldened many people to toe the corruption route. People are quick to point to many examples and instances of those who though broke the law, never got convicted; but instead, were allowed to go back to their corrupt lifestyles with impunity.

We are inclined to believe that that signs of the bungled election began to manifest during the review of voter register across the state of Anambra. If INEC had successfully carried out the review of voter register, the complaint of missing names would not have been widespread.

We recall that before the exercise, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), executive director, Clement Nwankwo, had also warned INEC to build on its past achievements by ensuring that all holes were plugged and necessary steps taken to avoid ridicules. But it appears the commission did not take to the advice.

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a civil society organisation, shared in our sentiment when it said that the flaws recorded in the Anambra State gubernatorial election would undermine public confidence in the nation’s electoral process, if not addressed.

We urge INEC to redeem itself from the infamy into which it allowed itself to descend by the shenanigans that played out in Anambra.