By Chimezie Godfrey
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), has renewed its call on the National Assembly to yield to the yearnings of Nigerians and finally deliver an electoral law that will secure Nigeria’s hard-earned democracy, and deliver an electoral ecosystem that respects the choices of Nigerians.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Executive Directorate, CDD,. Idayat Hassan
In a position paper titled,”Much Work remains to be done on Nigeria’s Electoral Bill, 2021, while acknowledging positive changes reflected in the bill,”CDD West Africa highlighted some amendments proposed that are capable of reversing accumulated gains recorded in the past decades.
The Centre expressed concern over the prohibition of electronic transmission of electrical results, and the fact that the proposed bill empowers returning officers to correct unit results, among others.
“Of particular concern is the prohibition on the transmission of votes electronically. Electronic transmission of votes is a core component of the recommendations for full digitization of the electoral process that we made ahead of this amendment. As long standing election monitors, CDD West Africa have observed the chaos associated with manual elections collating, which are “often messy, incoherent and susceptible to manipulations by individuals and political parties”.
“Again, the proposed bill gives Returning Officers (RO) powers to correct unit results. While CDD acknowledges that there are occasions where unit results genuinely need to be changed, there is a need to include provisos that will prevent abuse of those powers.
“In a recent CDD survey that drew respondents from all geopolitical zones in the country, 41% of respondents concluded that INEC staff favored candidates of the ruling party.
“The position paper also highlights the alarming increase in the campaign spending limits across political offices. CDD argues the proposed limits are extremely high.
“The new limit for Presidential Election, for example, is a fifteen fold increase, while the limits for gubernatorial candidate are increased twenty-five fold,” it stated.
The Centre argues that the proposed increment will constitute a major hurdle to the political advancement of women and youth candidates.
According to it, where such high limits on campaign financing are maintained, major political parties are highly likely to be disinclined toward nominating individuals deemed incapable of making significant contributions to their campaign or attracting heavy donations to fund the campaign”.
The group further argued that instead the bill should have reviewed the definition of ‘election expenditure’ as it currently stands as this narrow definition of election expenditure offers a convenient legal loophole to candidates, allowing them to spend considerable amounts of money before the ‘official’ start of the campaign period.
While commending the full financial autonomy to INEC as it protects them from overbearing influence of the government in power, CDD notes that without clearly making provisions for a three-year rolling plan and twice yearly disbursement of budgeted funds to INEC as recommended, the electoral body may still struggle to meet the logistical requirements of delivering credible elections.
This concern is not conjecture – the last three general elections were postponed as a result of the ad hoc nature of election funding in the country.
A final matter of concern is that the bill denies INEC powers to review already declared results in situations where there is evidence that ROs were forced by threats to declare the wrong candidate as winner.
This was a key recommendation as proposed by election observers after an RO declared that he declared a winner under duress in the 2019 elections following threats to his life.
CDD believes that ignoring this provision puts the lives of electoral officers further at risk, as there is a likelihood that politicians will further explore this method of rigging.Based on the foregoing, CDD West Africa makes the following recommendations: Full use of technology across the electoral spectrum to enhance traceability of voting activity across board
“To prevent abuse, there should be clear provisos that allow ROs to correct unit results.
“The increase on the limit on campaign spending should be proportionate with the percentage of inflation to keep our democracy representative of vulnerable constituencies like women and youths.
“The recommendation of ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions for a three year rolling plan for elections should be reflected in the amendment to guarantee timely logistical needs ahead of elections.
“INEC should have powers to review already declared election results, where there is clear evidence that the RO was forced to declare a false election result,” the Centre stated.
