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Securing the Future of Our Electoral Democracy in Nigeria - A 10-Step Set of Suggestions
 by Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
Burtonsville, MD, USA
April 26, 2007
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INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is currently reeling from domestic and international battering following the worst set of elections it has ever had in history - Gubernatorial/State Assembly elections on April 14, and Presidential/National Assembly on April 21, 2007. Except for the ruling PDP, President Obasanjo and particularly INEC's Maurice Iwu:, the condemnation has been unanimous, from TMG to EU, to ECOWAS, Commonwealth observer groups. See for example
This debacle has been no thanks primarily to two individuals:
(1) President Obasanjo, whose aims (a) first to succeed himself was aborted in May 2006 by the National Assembly significantly delayed election preparations, (b) of ensuring that Vice-President Atiku Abubakar does not succceed drove him to a series of befuddling illegalities that were finally trumped by succeeding court rulings; (c) of promoting a "do-or-die" attitude to the elections significantly raised the stakes.
and to
(2) Prof. Maurice Iwu, INEC's chairman, whose moves (a) to fully implement electronic registration AND voting and to stubbornly stick to the plan were eventually shot down by the National Assembly and (b) to obey Obasanjo's voice in excluding Atiku, did collateral damage to many other "disqualified" candidates, and also delayed the printing of ballot papers until the last minute after the Courts of Appeal and Supreme Court ruled that INEC had no powers to disqualify. Iwu in many instances cast INEC into the 51st political party and surrogate of the ruling PDP, and disobeyed many court rulings before finally succumbing to the Supreme Court
We are not yet out of the woods yet as to what will happen following this sordid set of (s)elections. There are strident calls by the Opposition to annul the entire exercise and install an Interim National Government (ING) to run a new set of elections. I do not support the call, and would rather that those who have the documentary evidence, courageous persistence and financial muscle to pursue their case before the Election Tribunals.
That is another matter; for now, it is never too early to do a soul-searching for the future so that we do not have a repeat of this national embarrassment.
WHAT DO WE DO IN THE FUTURE WITH RESPECT TO OUR ELECTIONS?
Some have suggested that full implementation of the electronic voting would indeed have guaranteed successful elections in Nigeria. Others have suggested that we even outsource our elections to the US (sans Florida) or to the UN. I do not agree to either suggestion, and strongly believe that we can have some home-grown solutions to our problem.
So let me quickly share some thoughts - ten steps.
1. The control of INEC should be taken away from the Executive, and put under the Judiciary. This is the only way it can earn its "Independent" National Electoral Commission name. Thus, the Chairman should be chosen by the Chief Justice and approved by the National Assembly, and INEC's membership should be composed of representatives of the major parties (eg equal number of representatives of political parties that scored more than 5% in the last general elections; with a minimum of 5 largest-scoring parties) and members of civil society (representatives of Lawyers, Labor, Women, Youth associations). Such a composition should also be replicated at the State electoral commission levels.
2. INEC should have a first-charge budget, from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. That way, it does not go cap-in-hand to either the Executive or the Judiciary.
3. Our elections should be staggered, with INEC running federal elections and - in order to promote true federalism - the various SIECs running state elections. The quadriennal (four-year) jamboree where 1 president, 36 governors, 360 House of Rep, 109 Senators, 990 state assemblypersons and about 9586 local government council members are elected in elections in 774 local governments in 8812 electoral wards via 120,000 polling stations across the country is too daunting for our present managerial and security capabilities right now. The current five-year tenure of the INEC chairman means that he gets to do only ONE of such jumbo elections, and hence has to learn on the job, and does not carry his experience over. However, if these elections could be sectioned in an annual manner such that only a quarter of them is done, they would be much more manageable. Even if the average tenure of office is 4 years, then we might have 9 new governors, 90 House of reps, 27 senators, 247 state assembly members elected each year and each set have a 4 year tenure - or double those numbers if a two-year cycle is preferred. The president would be elected once every four years.
4. ELECTRONIC registration of voters should DEFINITELY be continue, and must be a continuous process ie immediately you reach 18 years old, or whenever you wish to register, not just every election period. However, we must start with THE PRESENT REGISTER that the nation, via Maurice Iwu, spent so much money on. But we must first purge it of the clearly fraudulent entries right away, and then require that .it be published ELECTRONICALLY on the Internet once and for all. That way, both the government and various civic-minded organizations can RE-PUBLISH excerpts of it (as handouts or newspaper inserts) depending on the ward or local government of interest so that all who wish can check their names. INEC seems to have begun something like that on its website, see:
but I checked for my own registration, but it returned negative! Pasting names on trees and sides of houses for people to come and check - in the midst of possible rain soaking, vandalization and just plain difficulty of access - is just plain unacceptable.
5. The Voter Registration Card database VRCD should somehow be merged with the National ID card database NICD, so that they share a common database. In fact, the VRCD should be a subset of the NICD, with possibly a Voter bar code simply being put at the back of the National ID card.
All the above is pre-election preparation, with key provisos that INEC/SIECs must always be held accountable to deadlines set and publications promised..
6.On Election Day, I believe that we should still try for a few more times the Modified Open Ballot System (MOBS) where people queue up for a period following accreditation, and then vote for a period at the same time ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY. In the annulled June 12, 1993 elections that had Chief MKO Abiola emerge as winner, there was queueing from (say) 8 - 12 noon, followed by voting from 12 - 2 pm, I believe. I think that we can stagger those periods that so that we have queieng from 8-10am, followed by voting from 10-12noon, and then another set of queueing from 12-2pm, following by voting from 2-4pm. Eventually, being able to be accredited at any time and voting at any time soon after - as is done in most parts of the world - is the best and most acceptable format, but we may need a few more trials of the MOBS to get things right.
7. With MOBS, it is easy for official and unofficial monitors to INDEPENDENTLY record those that are on the queue to vote, so that any fake total numbers of voters announced later on can be easily disputed.
8. ACTUAL VOTING can either be electronic or manual - both can be done with integrity. For example, urban centers where some level of electricity availability can be assured can be done electronically. In rural areas, it can be done manually. The electoral laws should allow flexibility for both. Nothing should demand STRICT uniformity across our country. After all, even in the US, no such uniformity is demanded - provided access to voting is assured.
9. Also as part of the authentication process, BALLOT BOXES from which the vote counts were taken must be secured together with their CONTENTS (completed ballots) whether there is fear of a later dispute or not, and pictures of the ballot boxes at the polling station - with their clear identification marks - must be taken BEFORE counting begins. Delivery of these ballot boxes to some INEC center should be part of the final authentication of results process, and will reduce or even eliminate the penchant for ballot stuffing.
10. All announcements of results should be at each polling station - with loud-speakers blared into and outside of the polling station. The results should be displayed on bill boards (either electronic or boldly written) both INSIDE and OUTSIDE the polling station, and kept in place for at least two days AFTER the election day. But most importantly, INEC should require of its official agents, as part of its authentication record, digital recordation of the announcement AND still photographs of the billboards in addition to the forms that may have to be signed by the party agents. So audio recorders and digital cameras should be given to INEC agents to document that they did announce and did take pictures of the board. [Any pictures should have the picture of the INEC agent NEXT to the display board for it to be authentic.] This step should be repeated at each succeeding higher collation center
EPILOGUE
I strongly believe that if the above 10 steps are applied in Nigeria, we will have a more credible election process. It is my hope that they will be implemented BEFORE we carry out any national election exercise in the future, for we cannot go through this national embarrassment one more time.
I thank you for reading. Comments are welcome.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Posted by Robot| 27.04.2007 09:29