On February 25, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, now known as the Electoral Act, 2022.
With the signing of the Electoral Bill 2022 into law, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, announced a new date for the 2023 general election.
According to INEC, the new date for the Presidential and National Assembly elections is Saturday, 25th February 2023. Governorship and State Houses of Assembly will now be Saturday 11th March 2023.
As the Commission and Nigerians prepare for the forthcoming elections, these are some of the issues observed and reported about the 2019 general election that INEC may need to pay more attention to, to prevent their recurrence in the 2023 general election.
Election Postponement
On February 16, 2019, Nigerians woke up in preparation to go to the polls only to hear that the Presidential and National Assembly elections fixed for that date had been postponed.
Before the 2019 election, other general elections have been postponed in the country by INEC. It happened in the 2007 general elections on the grounds of logistics, the same in 2011. The Electoral Commission also postponed the 2015 general election due to security concerns.
It appears as if postponement of elections has more or less become a recurring phenomenon,
The INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said in postponing the 2019 general elections on the night preceding the scheduled date for the Presidential and National Assembly elections, that the Commission carefully reviewed its logistics and operational plans and concluded that proceeding with the election as scheduled was no longer feasible.
Following this, INEC announced new dates for the elections. February 23, 2019, for Presidential and National Assembly elections, and March 9 for Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
Before his announcement, the INEC Chairman had at several press conferences assured stakeholders and Nigerians of the preparedness and readiness of the Commission to conduct the elections on the fixed dates.
According to Babayo Sule et al, the postponement of the 2019 general election discouraged many people from participating in the election, particularly those who had travelled to the states where they registered to exercise their constitutional rights. Thus contributing to the low voter turnout of 35% in the election. The lowest the country has ever had and lowest recorded in Africa that year.
Besides this, Muda Yusuf, the then Director-General of Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said the country lost about $1.5 billion due to the postponement of the 2019 general elections.
As the country gears up for the forthcoming general election, INEC should dot all i’s and cross all t’s before the election dates to prevent a postponement of the 2023 general elections.
The cycle of election date postponements must be broken.
Smart Card Reader Malfunction
In the 2015 general election, INEC introduced a Smart Card Reader (SCR) machine, which the Commission believed was an anti-electoral fraud device that would enhance the integrity of the voting process and dissuade multiple voting, since only duly accredited and verified Permanent Voters Card (PVC) holders can vote.
Before the election, INEC assured the country that the SCR would not pose any challenge. However, there were numerous reports from many parts of the country about the device malfunctioning and causing delays and frustration for voters.
The story was not different in the 2019 general election. There were several reports of the failure of the SCR to function in various parts of the country, which led to a delay in the conduct of the election and announcement of final results.
Besides those issues, some voters were disenfranchised since one of the regulations for the conduct of the 2019 general election by INEC was that the SCR must accredit voters, and the election too must be held using the SCR.
Although INEC has introduced another device, the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the reports in the elections where it has been deployed so far have not been encouraging.
The BVAS device was first deployed in the Isoko South Constituency 1 bye-election in Delta State on September 10, 2021. Then the Anambra gubernatorial election and in the Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
At the different elections where the current device has been deployed, there were several reports of malfunctions that delayed the voting process, and in some cases, disenfranchised voters.
Dataphyte noted this during its monitoring of the FCT Area Council election.
Tackling this issue is something INEC should prioritise as the country prepares for the forthcoming election.
Late Arrival of INEC Officials and Deployment of Voting Materials
Since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, the country has conducted six general elections and in each of those elections, there have been reports of late arrival of INEC officials and voting materials.
For instance, in the 2015 general election, the polling process commenced at 8 am. The process entails authentication of PVCs, fingerprints, and verification in the voter register.
However, the majority of the polling units opened later than 8 am. According to the African Union Election Observation Mission report on the 2015 general election, only 23% of the polling units they visited opened on time, while 77% opened late because of the late arrival of polling personnel and election materials.
The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) gave a similar report about the 2019 general election. According to the EU EOM, most polling units opened extremely late, highlighting the absence of sensitive election materials as the key reason for the delay.
The EU EOM noted that only 65% of polling units were opened by midday, leaving many voters waiting for hours and uncertain when voting would begin. According to the report, this deterred many of them from participating.
The EU EOM noted that the late and lack of clear information from INEC further compounded the situation, which resulted in some voters not being allowed to vote in some polling units.
Even in the recent off-cycle elections conducted by INEC, there were reports of late arrival of INEC personnel and materials.
For instance, in the Anambra governorship election, YIAGA Africa noted that as late as 9:30 am, only 28% of polling units commenced accreditation and voting, then only 50% at 10:30 am.
According to the group, the late arrival of electoral officials, materials, accreditation, and voting, denied many electorates the right to vote in the Anambra governorship election.
A similar thing happened in the FCT Area Council elections held this year. Dataphyte, during its monitoring of the election, reported that INEC’s punctuality was generally low. YIAGA Africa also corroborated this in their Midday Situational Statement on the election.
With repeated reports of the late arrival of INEC officials and materials, which leads to late accreditation and voting, and in some cases result in some electorates not casting their votes, INEC needs to develop strategy now and adopt workable measures as Nigerians prepare to exercise their voting right in the forthcoming election.