INEC boss, Prof Mahmood Yakubu
The position of Movement for Change Worldwide (MFCW) remains sacrosanct about the 2023 Elections and the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC), which is that the electoral umpire must do all within its powers to ensure a free and credible elections in 2023. The group’s concerns focus on the following:
1. Invalid Voters Registration
2. Disenfranchisement of voters through missing PVCs
3. Unavailability of communication signal to transmit results
4. Transition of alternate result sheets
What if Invalid Registration is a ploy to Disenfranchise Voters?
The alarming number of invalid registrations, especially in States presumed to be for ‘Obidient’ (Labour Party), such as Bayelsa and Kogi, creates room for concern and doubt about the entire voter’s registration process and INEC’s capacity to conduct a free and credible election in 2023.
The reason there is an alarming rate of invalid registration points back to INEC. The fault can be traced to the INEC online voters’ registration portal, where the software was not designed to detect and reject attempt by applicants to register multiple times.
The absence of such features in the software is one of the reasons responsible for the high occurrence of multiple registration. Another reason INEC is to be blamed is because the commission personnel’s inability to detect double registration at the physical verification stage, accounts for the large invalid registration during the voter’s registration exercise. For this reason, INEC should be held responsible for the high rate of double registration and wrong thumb printing that is the reason for most of the invalidated registration.
What if Voters are Disenfranchised through Missing PVCs?
The 2023 Elections have thrown up diverse concerns about INEC’s preparedness to conduct in absolute terms, a free and fair elections in 2023. There are worries and even fears about a possible voters’ disenfranchisement by INEC of a largely youth population, who participated in the late voter’s registration exercise.
We are of the opinion that the repeated call by INEC for the collection of PVCs is nothing but a propaganda, because, most people who registered during the late voters’ registration window, whose cards are presumably ready, who made effort to visit the INEC office to pick up their cards, most of the times were told that their cards are ready but can’t be found, and as such they are asked to come back in November. The fear now is that if for any reason the November window closes, it means millions of voters, who are mostly youths, will be disenfranchised.
Records from complains we have received, show that most people, especially the young ones, who made attempt to collect their PVCs at the INEC offices were turned back. Eminently, this is a red flag, and such occurrence is common in mostly APC States and some PDP States as well. The fear now is that collection closes in November, and if for any reason, the PVCs of those who participated in the late registration are not found again in November, that means an automatic disenfranchisement by INEC of millions of registered voters.
This call for serious concern, because most of those who registered in the final days of the INEC registration exercise, were young people and they came out to register in large numbers just after the announcement of the movement of Peter Obi from the PDP to the Labour Party.
It is believed that most of the PVCs that can’t be found by INEC belong to this category of young voters. Reports in the media also show that most of the States where PVCs were allegedly discovered in pits and drainages are predominantly APC and PDP States. Therefore, we call on INEC to publish the list of all registered voters whose PVCs are ready.
What if Fake Election Results are Transmitted?
At the point when voting is concluded and the results are to be transmitted using the BVAS, a lot of concerns have been raised that there is high possibility of INEC ad hoc staff swapping result sheet after the elections and transmitting the results from the fake sheets. How does INEC ensure its Electoral Officers are prevented from carrying out such activities. Are party agents who are supposed to monitor the INEC ad hoc staff in a position to intervene without the security agents preventing them?
We are of the opinion that INEC must as a matter urgency, announce a clear procedure for addressing these concerns if they truly want to rebuild public confidence in the entire electoral process.
What if there is Unavailability of Network Signal to Transmit Results?
The BVAS technology that was introduced by INEC for the transmission of election results has largely been hailed as an innovation that will transform the conduct of elections in the country. Though the BVAS is a miracle device, notwithstanding, it is not fraud proof, as it can be manipulated by its handlers in quite a number of ways.
Another major concern is in the area of network connection in some of the polling stations. What if there is no network on the BVAS to scan and transmit the election result sheets? Are there measures by INEC to ensure all results must be transmitted at the polling center and nowhere else? What if the electoral officer opts to take the results to the collation center for transmission, is there a process in place to prevent this from happening?
Conclusion
As a support group, Movement for Change Worldwide is strongly of the opinion that these concerns and fears being expressed by the voting public about, especially the fairs of election rigging in 2023, needs to be treated with urgency and addressed by INEC before the end of December 2022, if they sincerely want to restore the already frail public confidence.
The group also call on INEC to ensure that no electoral official or ad hoc staff is allowed to carry or handle any other material, items or devices including mobile phones, than the BVAS and the voters result sheets. Neither should they be allowed to take the result sheets away from the polling station to another location for whatever reason.
