It’s clear that the 2023 general elections were conducted under the popularly accepted and new electoral framework, the Electoral Act 2022; a law that provides a more robust legal framework for the conduct of the polls. The law was expected to give legislative backing for more transparent voting, collation and announcement of results.
Prior to the elections, for the old voters, there were concerns for massive logistics and technical issues, and for the new voters, they were obviously excited with fresh optimism that the election would usher in hope for new democracy in Nigeria. Hence, the anticipated elections happened and the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, “refused” to provide the enabling environment, essential infrastructure and logistical support, adequate technology among others to enable a free and fair poll.
These situations have called into question INEC’s impartiality, credibility and raised concerns over the commitment of the electoral body to credible and transparent elections in Nigeria.
Now, looking into some of the major issues that marred the 2023 elections, the first on the list will be the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. The electronic device is designed to read Permanent Voter Cards and authenticate voters, using their fingerprints to prove that they are eligible to vote at a particular polling unit. Recall that when it was first deployed in Delta State around September 2021, some presiding officers fussed about how the machine had difficulties capturing the thumbs and faces of some of the voters, especially old people. Same incidents also occurred during the Osun State governorship elections as there were some technical issues raised.
Recall also that INEC dismissed their fears, saying the machine had been test-run and proved by its IT experts to have the capacity to perform optimally during the governorship polls. Despite the assurance, it was a repetition of past stories as there were cases of BVAS failure to accredit voters due mainly to technical issues relating to login details, configuration or internet connectivity.
This was not the case during the just-concluded presidential and National Assembly elections, where many INEC officials failed to upload results at polling units. In many instances, voters waited for hours, in futility, for officials to upload the results of their polling units.
Now, Nigerians want to know how INEC spent the N305bn it got from the Federal Government and how the budgeted N114.26bn for ICT-related expenses was spent. They want to know why BVAS failed and if the number of polling units doesn’t indicate the number of BVAS. There is no way they shouldn’t have budgeted for at least one-tenth of those BVAS connecting to the server at the same time. INEC knows how much can be captured; they should have known the bandwidth needed. Isn’t it that the INEC system was not primed for the kind of data coming through it?
Time and logistics challenges? We saw cases of postponements of elections in some polling units in Lagos, Imo, Bayelsa, Rivers and Edo states. True, most of the reasons were due to logistics challenges, the unavailability of sufficient electoral materials in many polling stations across the country. INEC itself admitted that some of the reasons why it could not open some of the polling units on time were due to problems of logistics in spite of its “best efforts.’’
We saw different cases of the late start of voting beyond the 08:30am opening time due to the late arrival of polling officials and voting materials and, in some cases, the delivery of wrong materials, at polling stations across the country. According to Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development-post election incident report on March 2023, a little above 18 per cent of the polling units observed, started election process before 8:30 while about 45 per cent of the polling units commenced the exercise between 8:30 and 9:59am and about 36 per cent of the polling units started around 10am. Fair enough, INEC did better in terms of logistics compared to past elections, but the question remains if INEC can fix time and logistics issues.
It is equally provoking to watch how thugs were observed interrupting polls and intimidating voters in different parts of the country. Many local and international observers equally condemned the violence that accompanied the February 25 and the March 18 governorship elections. In fact, some described it as the worst in the history of the electoral process in Nigeria.
Media reports state that in Cross River State, an Adhoc INEC worker was hit by a stray bullet after some gunmen opened fire while she was in a boat heading to Bakassi for election duty. Still in the same state, more than 50 political thugs at about 2.15 am on Sunday March 19 invaded INEC collation centre at the Ogoja State constituency disrupting collation of results, vandalised the place, carted away election materials, phones and inflicted injuries on many ward collation officers. Similar incidents were also recorded in Adamawa, Lagos and other states across the federation. According to CJID, polling unit disruptions and harassment during voting combined made up 19.6 of incidents recorded by observers.
Now, Nigerians are worried if the country can get violence out of her elections or maybe it does not have enough security apparatus to curb the consistent crises in our elections?
Again, we have always fussed about vote buying, as this system of inducement refuses to divorce from the country’s democracy. According to Civil Society Organisations Connected Development, it recorded 50 cases of vote buying during the elections, which also shows an increase across different polling units in the country. Yiaga Africa, a pro-democracy and development organisation, also stated that it recorded and confirmed 15 cases of vote buying and bribery across eight states during the governorship elections. It added that political party agents were observed sharing food, cash and alcoholic drinks to some voters in different states.
Let’s examine the issue of voter apathy. According to Datapyte, out of the total 93.47 million registered voters, only 24.9 million persons voted during the presidential and National Assembly elections. This represents a meagre 26.72 per cent voter turnout, the lowest since the return to democracy in 1999. Compared to the voter turnout of 34.74 per cent in the 2019 general elections, the turnout in the just concluded election declined by 8.03 per cent. Also, low voter turnout was witnessed across Nigeria when 28 states conducted their 2023 governorship and state house of assembly elections.
Following the postponement of the state level elections from March 11 to 18 by INEC, the numbers of voters were not as high as that of February 25, according to reports from Dataphyte observers across the country. Meanwhile, several reasons have been cited for the poor voter turnout being experienced. A policy analyst, Ayantola Alayande, highlighted a number of reasons for the low voter turnout in the election. He pointed out that the postponement of the election by a week dampened the spirits of the electorate. Cases of violence, ballot snatching and other issues might have also been a factor to be considered for the low turnout.
In conclusion, it is underwhelming to accept that this is what we can get out of INEC’s four-year Strategic Plan and Strategic Programme of Action. The agency still struggles with logistics and technical issues, insecurity, vote buying and other issues that can bring the best out of the body. Can Nigerians ever trust INEC? Can INEC ever produce what will be free and fair for Nigerians? Time will tell?
