Alternative Strategy for balloting and voting for Nigeria’s 2007 General Elections

- A Public Memo to INEC

From:

The Shehu Shagari World Institute for Leadership and Good Governance (SSWI)

As Nigerians look forward towards the forthcoming 2007 general elections, the Shehu Shagari World Institute for Leadership and Good Governance (SSWI) wish to commend the Independent Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) in introducing some innovations in the preparation for the forthcoming 2007 general elections to ensure smooth and efficient conduct and management of the general elections in Nigeria. Specifically, the Institute welcomes and supports the decision taken by the Commission to adopt the use of different types of ballot papers (i.e., Colour Coding) for the various geographical zones of the country in the management of the forthcoming 2007 general elections.  

Alternative Balloting methodology: 

In addition to the adoption of differential Colour Coding of ballot papers by INEC for the six geopolitical zones of the country in the forthcoming 2007 general elections, the Institute wishes to recommend to the Commission the use of alternative balloting system, whereby, only the names and symbols (i.e., political party logos) of the political parties that field candidates for a particular electoral contest are printed on the ballot papers for that particular contest. For example, if a political party X does not have a candidate for the Presidential contest, that party’s name and logo should not be printed on the Presidential ballot papers. Similarly, if a political party is not contesting for gubernatorial elections all the 36 States of the federation, its name and logo should only be printed on the gubernatorial election ballot papers for the State(s) in which the party has fielded candidates for the gubernatorial contests.  

The same process and procedure should be adopted for all the elective offices that will be contested for the 2007 general elections. What this means is that, the ballot papers for all the elective offices will differ from State to State of the federation and within and between the six geopolitical zones.  

Advantages of the methodology 

The advantages of this methodology are many. First, this methodology makes it extremely difficult for people to move ballot papers from State to State and or between and within geopolitical zones. This is because the ballot papers (say) for the gubernatorial election in Sokoto State will be fundamentally different from that of (say) Zamfara State; both in terms of the names of the contestants and the number of political parties contesting in that particular contest. Thus, the ease of rigging is very much curtailed, if not entirely eliminated.   

Secondly, the size, length and contents of the ballot papers will definitely shrink as only the names of the political parties, their logos and names of their respective contestants for that particular contest will be printed on the ballot papers. This will help to eliminate the waste of time and confusion that is often associated with the cluttering of ballot papers with the names and logos of all the registered political parties irrespective of whether they fielded candidates or not for the electoral offices to be contested in any given electoral jurisdiction. For example, if only 10 out of the about 50 registered political parties fielded candidates for the Presidential contest, only the names and logos of the 10 political parties and the individual names of the presidential candidates fielded by those 10 political parties will be printed on the presidential election ballot papers. Therefore, the names and logos of the remaining 40 political parties that did not have candidates for the Presidential contest will NOT appear on the ballot papers for that very contest. Thus, this recommended system makes it easier for the voter to quickly identify his or her chosen political party and candidate and at the same time makes it faster and less cumbersome to cast the vote compared to the way and manner the elections have always been conducted in the past. 

Overall, this suggested methodology has the versatility of ensuring the integrity of the general elections because only the political parties that field candidates for specific electoral contests that will have their names, logos and names of their individual candidates printed on the ballot papers for those specific electoral contests (e.g., Presidential, Gubernatorial, National Assembly and State House Assembly contests, etc). Put simply, if a political party does not field a candidate for a particular contest, its name and logo will not appear on the ballot papers for that particular contest in that particular electoral jurisdiction. 

Implementation and Workability:  

For this recommended methodology to work well and efficiently, methodical, timely and careful planning; data collection and management are involved. For example, for the system to be adopted for the conduct of the forthcoming 2007 general elections, INEC must request all the political parties interested in actually participating in the general elections to compile and submit a comprehensive list of all the electoral offices they are contesting in each and every State of the federation, including the names of their Presidential candidates if any. INEC should then ensure that its States Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) thoroughly vet the submissions, together with the officials of the State offices of the political parties. It is at this point that the proper picture of who is contesting for which electoral office will emerge. INEC should then prepare the necessary electoral/voting materials for each State of the federation based upon the results of the data compiled from every of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). For the Presidential contest, INEC national headquarters should compile the data from the national headquarters of all the registered political parties.

Costs Implication 

Compared to the huge and monumental amount of time, financial and human resources often deployed in the conduct of our previous elections, which more often than not, ended in costly litigations and loss of precious lives and properties in the process of disputing and challenging the results, this alternative methodology will substantial reduce and even eliminate all these post election human, material and financial costs, wastes and losses.  

With proper and timely planning; collection of all required data and information from the political parties, the quantum amount of money to be spent in implementing this alternative methodology is very small. It is nothing compared with the amount of money spent in introducing the ongoing electronic voter registration system! No foreign exchange is involved here!! For example, the methodology requires localization of capital expenditure. Within a particular geo-political zone (mostly comprising 5-7 States),  minimum of 4 – 5 colours may be required to differentially colour code the ballot papers for all various elective offices. Switching of colours for ballot papers between elective offices is also feasible; since the dates for the conduct of the elections also differ. For example, the same colour can be used twice for different contest. For instance, a red colour used to colour-code ballot papers for the conduct of State House of Assembly election can also be used to code ballot papers for the conduct of Presidential contest in same geo-political zone. Presidential ballot papers may require the use of six (6) different colours, based on the six geo-political zones of the country. 

Finally, with the elimination of redundant political parties from the ballot system, substantial amount of money will be saved in terms of the reduction of the size, length and printed contents of the ballot papers. There is also saving coming from the huge reduction and or elimination of invalid ballot papers arising from the clumsiness and bulkiness of the existing ballot papers. Furthermore, there is also substantial savings in time wasted during the voting process. The alternative methodology is quicker and faster; it cuts and saves on time. Time is money.   
 

Abubakar Atiku Nuhu Koko

Executive Director, SSWI

aanuhukoko@yahoo.com

Saturday, 30 December 2006