- A passable election, all things considered. But INEC must up its IT game to not make a hash of future major elections
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returning officer for Anambra governorship election, Prof. Florence Baku-Obi, announced the result on Wednesday morning with these words: ”That Charles Chukwuma Soludo of APGA, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected”.
The election was supposed to have ended by 4pm on Saturday, November 6; and results declared a few hours later. However, it remained inconclusive; and the collation of results halted, because elections did not hold in 362 polling units in Ihiala Local Government area of the state. This is a huge number and INEC must take responsibility for adding Anambra to its litany of states with “inconclusive” elections.
Even some areas where the election was conclusive suffered serious IT glitches, necessitating voting to be extended far beyond the official closing time. Candidate Soludo himself kept off voting in protest, until almost all other voters in his unit had done so. Mercifully, he voted at last, after the malfunctioning Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) gadget had been fixed — INEC said, through a systems upgrade. The BIVAS technology linked voters’ faces to their finger prints. That transparency was a breath of fresh air to a country that, for too long, had experienced too many flawed elections.
We congratulate Prof. Soludo for his victory. However, we regret that again, INEC has come short in conducting just one state election. Aside from the BIVAS glitch, the INEC old nemesis of sloppy logistics appears alive and well. That can’t augur well for future elections. The conduct of this singular election still recorded a lot of the old sour experiences.
Still, it’s cheery to note that glitches or no, INEC’s progressive introduction of technology is coming through for its efforts. BIVAS gave the Anambra election the credibility it craved. We can only encourage INEC to consolidate on this plain.
But it must ensure there are far less glitches on election days.
We also appreciate the election was devoid of the violence and the seeming Armageddon not a few had predicted, given the level of violence the state had experienced in the last few months. There was no disruptive violence as process was on. Aside from the security agencies that secured this election — they have earned our praise — we again applaud the election’s general transparency. If BIVAS was responsible for this feat, then we move that the technology be mainstreamed so that even political parties can deploy it in their primaries.
Sadly, the election recorded a very low voter turnout, due to so many reasons. Many feared there might be violence given the threats by some groups. But again, we commend the security agencies for being on hand to protect the process and the people generally, even though there were still some minuses by a few of them who looked on as certain irregularities went on. The police must be commended for arresting an electoral officer in Ihiala who allegedly attempted to truncate the process. We hope he will face the full wrath of the law as a deterrent to future offenders.
The INEC public enlightenment department seems to have failed in mobilizing the people for the election and assuring them of the fairness of the process. It is not all INEC’S fault.The general apathy at elections stems often from the lack of trust in the system as past elections had recorded some irregularities. Better information about the transparency of the process would have convinced more voters to come out.
As we head towards the 2023 general elections, we hope that the Anambra experience would be improved upon, especially as regards logistics by INEC and the security agencies. Inconclusive elections should not be part of INEC’s identity in a 21st century Nigeria where the Big Brother Nigeria votes recorded over a billion votes by Nigerians/Africans. It was possible because of technology.
We congratulate Soludo on his win and hope he would bring real peace and progress to the state — after his name which means “follow peace”. His well-articulated manifesto should stand as a beacon of hope to technocrats around the country, craving to add value to the political process and system. We also call on the governor-elect to run an inclusive government because nothing beats team work.
