Sixth Pre-Election Press Statement: Voters And Stakeholders Need To Synergise To Eradicate Election Rigging In The 2019 General Elections
SIXTH Pre-Election Press Statement: VOTERS AND STAKEHOLDERS NEED TO SYNERGISE TO ERADICATE ELECTION RIGGING IN THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS
Thursday 21st February, 2019 10am
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Many voters and stakeholders are making concerted efforts to ensure that they fully participate in the rescheduled 2019 polls, with the presidential and national assembly elections set for Saturday 23rd February 2019. Citizens, political parties, accredited observers, media, religious and traditional institutions amongst others have all expressed a strong desire for credible elections. However credibility of elections is not the exclusive preserve of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and/or security agencies. Citizens also have a role to play.
For any election to be truly free and fair, the citizens must be willing to expose all acts of rigging to the appropriate authorities. Fortunately, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have published contact details of their offices and senior personnel across the country for citizens to make easy contact. It is now important for voters to take advantage of these platforms and ensure that every act of election rigging is exposed and handled by the appropriate authorities.
It is for this reason that has researched some common rigging techniques and also proffered solutions as to how they can be mitigated. It is our opinion that when voters understand more about how election riggers operate they can spot their activities easier and raise the alarm whenever required.
Election Monitor believes that if citizens do their part effectively as well as the various institutions concerned, election rigging would become a thing of the past.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Signed
Abiodun Ajijola
National Coordinator
7 ELECTION RIGGING TECHNIQUES AND HOW TO PREVENT THEM
1. Ballot Box stuffing
This is basically where more ballots are placed in the ballot box than the actual number of voters who came to vote. To achieve this the number of accredited voters has to be increased to accommodate for the additional ballot papers placed into the ballot box. If this is done carelessly it would lead to a case of overvoting which would result in the cancellation of election in the entire polling unit. This technique has gone on the decline since the introduction of the smart card readers in the 2015 General Elections because of the challenge of indiscriminately increasing accreditation figures. An example of this is during a recent election when a ballot box was stuffed right in the presence of polling officials at the polling unit. Most voters were not aware of the situation because some party loyalists formed a barricade over the ballot box as this was being done.
Remedy
· The key is for political party agents and voters to watch the ballot boxes and papers closely and raise an alarm to security agencies where they see the any attempt to stuff the ballot boxes. Voters and party agents must insist that ballot boxes are placed in an open space and not taken to any location out of the public glare throughout the conduct of the election.
2. Buying and selling of votes on Election Day
This is the exchange of money for votes on election day. This has been practiced for a very long time in Nigerian elections, however the demam isu has reached stupendous proportions which takes away freeness and fairness from elections. This form of rigging was generally on the rise in most off-cycle governorship elections post the 2015 General Elections. For vote buying on election day to be effective the voter must be able to prove to the buyer that he/she has voted for the buyer’s candidate/party. In addition in most cases, the payment is in cash at a reasonable distance from the polling units usually not in the immediate vicinity. There are however some very outrageous situations where the cash has actually been paid within the polling unit.
Remedy
There is no one way to stop the buying and the selling of votes. However the following will help to significantly reduce the scourge:
· Ensuring secrecy of the ballot – here the polling unit is laid out in such a way as to make it impossible for any person (including polling officials) to know the way a candidate votes. Significant attempts were made to achieve this in the 2018 Osun State Governorship Election.
· Punitive measures for offenders – the Electoral Act clearly provides for buying and selling of votes as an electoral offence. The security agencies must up their game to ensure that more and more offenders are brought to book. This would also serve as a deterrent to others.
· Increased voter education – There is a need to consistently increase the education of voters that they should not engage in this activity as it has both budpekerti and legal implications for the voters who engage in it.
· Stakeholder consensus – There is a need for stakeholders to agree that buying and selling of votes is not an acceptable election practice and would not be condoned by anyone.
· Media campaign – There needs to a sustained public media campaign against the buying and selling of votes.
· Citizen action – Voters must be willing to expose those purchasing votes on election day and expose locations where the actual payments are made to law enforcement agents who are on duty.
3. Purchasing of permanent voter cards before elections
Many people believe that the only reason why politicians purchase PVCs before elections is to somehow use them to influence accreditation. This is an arduous task with the smart card reader.
However purchasing of PVCs before elections could be for the purpose of disenfranchising voters from the opponent of a candidate during the election. If for example PVCs are massively purchased in an area that heavily favours a particular candidate such an area would witness significant reduction in voter turnout on election day because such voters would not be able to vote. This would directly affect the votes received by the candidate if he or she is the dominant name in such a location. Purchase or rental of PVCs Is usually a transaction carried out by a politician and the voters. The politician purchases the voter cards using his/her political structure which has willing foot soldiers at the grassroots that will approach and offer voters cash.
Remedy
· Increased voter education to discourage the activity.
· Arrests of perpetuators.
· Sting operations to catch offenders.
4. Intentional voiding of votes
In voting, a ballot is considered spoilt, spoiled, void, null, informal, invalid, rejected or stray if a law declares or an election authority determines that it is invalid and thus not included in the vote count. This may occur accidentally or deliberately. The total number of voided votes in an election may sometimes be called the residual vote (USA). In Australia, such votes are generally referred to as informal votes, and in Canada they are referred to as rejected votes. In Nigeria, the terms voided and rejected are commonly used to refer to such votes.
Voter instructions are usually intended to minimize the accidental spoiling of votes. Ballot design can aid or inhibit clarity in an election, resulting in less or more accidental spoiling. Some election officials have discretion to include ballots where the strict criteria for acceptability are not met but the voter's intention is clear.
Intentionally spoiling a ballot before or during tabulation of election results is an electoral fraud. One way that has been observed that this can be done is by getting access to a ballot paper which has been legitimately thumbprinted for a particular candidate and voiding it by using an object, handkerchief, cotton wool, piece of cloth or even a human finger to make another thumbprint on the paper. Certainly two finger prints on the same ballot for two different parties would certainly void the ballot. Where this happens, it is most likely to result in a very significant increase in the rejected vote rate for the constituency where the election has just been held compared to previous elections in the same constituency.
Intentional voiding of votes is more likely to occur because it is much more difficult to stuff ballot boxes with the advent of the smart card readers in Nigerian elections. In order to avoid overvoting ballot boxes cannot be stuffed beyond the accredited voters which are limited by the card reader. As a result it is more lucrative to reduce the votes of an opponent to ensure the victory of the perpetrator candidate in the polling unit.
Remedy
The following can be done to check this.
· Party agents (non-beneficiary) must carefully watch ballot boxes where votes are placed in and ensure that at no time are these ballot boxes taken away or out of public glare for any reason during the election. Citizens at polling units must also ensure they keep an eye on the ballot boxes as well.
· While sorting is going on, non-beneficiary party agents must ensure that they closely watch all the rejected votes and raise concerns with the polling officials where they observe any ballot paper which may appear to be intentionally voided.
· All party agents should not only track the votes received by candidates but also the rejected votes as well.
5. Intentionally get elections cancelled in certain areas
It is common knowledge that an election may be cancelled in any location where there are circumstances that prevent the election from holding and/or being concluded. For example violence is one of the leading causes of cancellation of elections in polling units in Nigeria. Other possible reasons include but are not limited to: overvoting (where more votes are cast than those who were accredited), non-use of the smart card reader for accreditation (i.e. manual accreditation), hijacking or theft of election materials required to conduct elections (e.g. ballot papers, ballot boxes, results sheets (form EC 8 A) etc) amongst others.
From these, it is clear that cancellations are critical and could have a significant effect on whether an election is concluded on the first ballot or not.
The reason why some unscrupulous persons may want to create cancellations in a particular location is primarily to disenfranchise voters in that location. This in most cases always has a well calculated outcome and hence can be seen as a form of rigging.
For example, political thugs may invade a polling area and disrupt the election conduct in such a way that the election cannot be concluded in that particular location again. In this scenario it is possible that the polling unit is located in an area of strength to a particular politician. Disrupting the election in such a location would have direct adverse impact on the politician who holds sway in such a location.
Ballot papers scattered on the floor during a recent election by political thugs
Remedy
Generally citizens and political parties can ensure that they watch the proceedings at the polling unit circumspectly to ensure that there is no interference or action which could lead to election being cancelled in the polling unit.
In some cases such as the 2016 Bayelsa Governorship Re-run election, youths in some communities started moving from one polling unit to another to prevent the thugs that were indiscriminately damaging the ballot boxes and throwing the content on the ground. While this was effective as it drove away the miscreants, it is a form of taking laws into their own hands which must not be encouraged. The import of this is that the security agents should actually ensure that political thugs do not disrupt the polling areas. However when the security agencies choose to be partisan, the resultant effect is that citizens may choose to protect their votes themselves which could lead to chaos and general break down of law and order. The security personnel must maintain strict neutrality at all times during the elections.
Youths in Amassoma looking for political thugs during the 2016 Bayelsa State Governorship Election Re-run
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6. Interference/manipulation of election results collation
One of the most critical aspects of the Election Day process is the collation of results. Election results from the polling units are collated first at the ward or registration area (RA) before being forwarded to the local government area (LGA) before the selesai collation at the state collation centre (governorship election). However in a presidential election collation ends at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory.
Each political party fielding a candidate during any election is entitled to a copy of the results at all levels. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does this for transparency of the Election Day process especially collation. However many political parties do not take advantage of these results provided by INEC to develop their own custom built internal collation system. It is critical that political parties make optimum use of the copies of the official results provided for them by INEC to ensure that they carefully and thoroughly monitor the election collation results process to ensure that they are satisfied with the process. However in order for this to be effective party agents need to be present at ALL 119,973 polling units and 57,023 voting points across the country.
Remedy
One of the best ways to combat rigging in collation of election results is for the political parties to embrace technology and ensure they track the election results as they are released from the polling units to the selesai collation point.
Election Monitor has developed innovative and first of its kind mobile and web applications for quick and effective internal collation of election results by political parties. Having such a system would ensure that political parties are able to compare their own collation with that of the electoral management body. Where there are discrepancies the parties through their representatives could make the observations to the collation officials to ensure optimum accuracy of the collation process.
Such mobile and web applications would strengthen the capacities of political parties during elections as well as ensure greater transparency in the electoral process. It would also bring greater acceptability to selesai results released because parties can attest to their veracity. In addition there would be fewer if any allegations which cannot be founded which in turn will reduce tension and ensure smoother election conduct. Ultimately this will increase the propensity for peaceful elections.
7. Voter intimidation
Voter intimidation may be defined as any concerted effort or practice by an individual or group on behalf of a party or candidate to coerce the voting behavior of a particular class or demographic of voters.
This is one of the crudest forms of rigging because it usually involves violence and brute force and breaks every known tenet of what democratic elections should be. Unfortunately voter intimidation as a rigging strategy has been recorded in some elections in the past. Sadly voter intimidation happens not only in main elections but even political primary elections as well.
Voter intimidation is probably amongst the top two current greatest threats to free, fair and credible elections conduct in Nigeria. In some cases certain voters would be given symbols (e.g. white handkerchief) which would enable them access the polling units while others would be prevented from gaining access to the polling stations.
Remedy
The major issue here is voter education and instilling the democratic rights of each voter on the general citizenry. By doing this citizens will reject any attempt by anyone to intimidate them irrespective of the situation.
It is also important to put pressure on security agencies to be non-partisan as well. It is important for citizens to endeavour to capture as many incidences of voter intimidation as possible and put them on the social media to create awareness of the situation in real time.
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