With the new level of desperation displayed by the political parties at the just concluded state elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, there are indications that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may not have learned from its recent mistakes.
As the 4 year term of the incumbent governors of both Kogi and Bayelsa states were to elapse at a date later than the other 31 states which had their elections in earlier March; on Saturday, November 16, elections were held to usher in a new administration in these states.
Read more about Politics
In Kogi state, the rerun elections for Kogi West senatorial district ordered by the Appeal Court was also scheduled to hold same day the gubernatorial elections were holding.
But even before the results of the elections started rolling in, reports of malpractices and violence such as ballot box snatching, blocking electorates from voting, vote-buying, missing names on voter’s register, riddled the conduct of the polls. YIAGA Africa and the European Commission were some of the civil society organisations which reported these poll malpractices and violence.
In Kogi too, where the state government is reportedly owing workers salaries for months, the electorate has been torn between the choice of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, incumbent governor Yahaya Bello and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Engr. Wada.
Senator Dino Melaye too, who once referred to Senator Smart Adeyemi as his ‘political wife’, positions himself to be ready for whatever antics the incumbent party in the state will be dealing him. But as reports of voter intimidation, teargas canisters were being shot down from helicopters to scare voters, it seemed that the incumbent party were deploying ‘boots’ on the ground as other incumbent parties have done in the past.
Tales of security personnel looking the other way when malpractices and violence are being perpetrated at the November 16 elections remain rife.
Now that the announced results from Bayelsa have revealed David Lyon of the APC as the winner of the Bayelsa polls in controversial circumstances and the Kogi West senatorial elections are declared inconclusive due to the aforementioned inconsistencies, it appears things have not changed much since the February/March elections. If anything, more loopholes in the law, security and logistics of elections keep being exploited.
Sign up to the Connect Nigeria daily newsletter
The more disappointing outcome from these last polls show that the people are getting even more distraught. However, before this level of hopelessness in the integrity of elections conducted in our country gets to the maximum where people no longer bother to vote, the citizens will have to move against the designs set by politicians to rig electoral outcomes.
There is an urgent need for the electorate and the general populace to jointly demand an urgent review of the Electoral Act at the National Assembly so as to block all the loopholes being currently exploited by desperate politicians.
Featured Image Source: Daily Post NG
Did you find this article useful? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com
You might also like:
- Kemi Badenoch Becomes First Black Woman to Lead a Major UK Political Party
- National Youth Dialogue Conference Set to Hold in Lagos
- 5 Characteristics Of A Patriotic Nigerian
- 25 Years Later, Is Nigeria “Truly Democratic?’’ – Peter Obi
