From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is certainly one of the institutions that experienced an admixture of sunshine and turbulence, in equal proportion, in the year 2021.
From the colossal damage to several of its offices and facilities across the country especially from the faceless miscreants in the South East geopolitical zone, the spillover of the unending litigations concerning the de-registration of political parties to its perceived bias in the leadership crisis rocking the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and more importantly, some technological hitches it encountered during the conduct of various off-season and bye-elections, the challenges to its operations in 2021 were enormous.
Then, on the flip side, the commission graduated from the perennial problems of inconclusive elections to successful conduct of several off-season polls including the November 6 Anambra State governorship election, adjudged free, fair and credible, the improvement and millage recorded in the use of technology in the conduct of elections.
Again, in line with its resolve to apply precision in elections, the commission had hit ground running early in with the prompt announcement of the date for the 2023 general elections, fixing the presidential election to hold Saturday, February 18, 2023, almost two years to the poll.
It followed the year’s success stories with the provision of legal framework and legislative assistance for the enactment of the now unfortunate rejected Electoral Amendment Bill, which would have backed the commission towards full deployment of technology in the conduct of major and minor elections in the country.
The resumption of Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) was another gladdening news across the country in the year under review. Providing almost a near perfect logistics with smooth transmission from the online to physical capturing, the CVR was one activity most voters applauded the commission for a smooth operation and delivery.
The commission did not sign off there, as it also achieved the unthinkable and near impossibility of relocating Polling Units, voting centres from shrines, churches, mosques, houses of notable political figures to more accessible areas. Though complaints trailed the exercise, it was however a 25 year-old jinx broken by the commission.
Then to make the success stories memorably complete, the commission adopted diplomatic approach in holding quarterly stakeholders meeting involving security agents, media executives, Civil Society Organisations, national leaders of political parties and essentially its Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs)
Torching of INEC facilities
No fewer than 12 INEC offices in at least seven states were gutted by fire with facilities completely or partially destroyed in the year 2021 alone. The situation was so bad that in a spate of one month, between April and May this year, a total of 11 offices of the commission were either raised or vandalised with the situation in the South East geopolitical zone particularly becoming a source of concern.
Expressing disappointment and concern during a quarterly meeting with the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), the Commission’s chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, admitted that the spate of violence had become a serious threat to the conduct of elections in the country.
Addressing an emergency ACCES meeting in May this year, he said: “No doubt, the last few weeks have been very challenging to the Commission. The spate of arson and vandalisation targeting the Commission’s facilities and property has become a major threat to our scheduled activities and the entire electoral process.
“In the last two years, the Commission has recorded a total of 41 incidents involving deliberate attacks on the Commission’s facilities. Nine of these incidents happened in 2019 and 21 cases in 2020. In the last four weeks, 11 offices of the Commission were either set ablaze or vandalised. Two of these incidents were caused by Boko Haram and Bandit attacks while 10 resulted from thuggery during election and post-election violence.
“However, the majority of the attacks (29 out of 41) were unrelated to election or electoral activities. In fact, 18 of them occurred during the EndSARS protests in October last year while 11 attacks were organised by ‘unknown gunmen’ and ‘hoodlums’,” he said.
Accessing the magnitude of the damage, Prof Mahmood said: “although the Commission is assessing loss of materials during recent attacks, our preliminary assessments so far indicate that we lost 1,105 ballot boxes, 694 voting cubicles, 429 electric generating sets and 13 utility vehicles (Toyota Hilux).
“These attacks, which initially appeared as isolated and occasional actions, became more frequent and systematically targeted at demobilising and dismantling critical electoral infrastructure in the country. This will not only undermine the Commission’s capacity to organise elections and other electoral activities but will also damage the nation’s electoral process and democracy. Indeed, these attacks on the Commission’s facilities should now be treated as a national security emergency,” he warned.
Creation of additional polling units
One of the areas the commission scored a pass mark in the year 2021 was certainly in the creation and expansion of Polling Units in the country. Although it was an exercise that did not get the total buy-in of politically enlightened Nigerians due to certain misgivings, the exercise was commendable because of the discomfort it has given to the Nigerian electorate.
Previously, there have been requests and appeals from Nigerians to the Commission to relocate many of the polling units situated at inappropriate places such as private residences and properties, palaces of traditional rulers and places of worship to public buildings that will be accessible to voters, polling agents, observers and the media during elections.
In responding to the demand this year, the commission had at the end of the exercise, relocated a total number of 749 polling units from their inappropriate locations in various states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Commenting on the development, INEC, said: “After consultation with stakeholders, the commission has successfully removed 749 Polling Units from inappropriate locations to appropriate public facilities or open spaces, in line with our policy to guarantee unencumbered access to polling units for all voters.
“As you are aware, the history of creating and expanding Polling Units in Nigeria has been long and complex. Their adequacy and accessibility in terms of number and location across the country were some of the challenges that had to be addressed in the interest of credible elections. Before 2010, the commission operated on a round figure of approximately 120,000 polling units.
“A census undertaken by the commission before the 2011 general election arrived at the precise figure of 119,973 polling units. The Commission also made efforts to relocate many polling units from inappropriate places such as private residences and properties, palaces of traditional rulers and places of worship to public buildings accessible to voters, polling agents, observers and the media during elections.
“The Commission successfully removed 749 polling units from inappropriate locations to appropriate public facilities or open spaces in line with our policy to guarantee unencumbered access to PUs for all voters. Of this figure, 232 were removed from private properties, 145 royal palaces, six Mosques, 21 Churches and nine shrines. The remaining 336 PUs were relocated for various reasons which include distance, difficult terrain, congestion, communal conflict, new settlements and general insecurity,” the commission explained.
Success story of Anambra governorship and other elections
Apparently, the conduct and outcome of the Anambra State governorship election is one area the commission received more commendations than attacks or criticisms. This is because in the rating of many, the outcome of that poll was a confirmation of many things including the categorisation of it as essentially a litmus test, launchpad and test run for the 2023 general elections.
It was an election laced with multiplicity of challenges ranging from tense insecurity situation in the South East, litigations, technological experimentation, apathy, to destruction of INEC facilities and offices before and during the poll.
Assessing the election, the commission noted; “It has been a few weeks since the conclusion of the Anambra governorship election. Despite the challenging security situation in the state, the commission was resolute in our determination to proceed with what many believed was going to be an impossible election to conduct. Happily, the election passed off peacefully and the outcome was judged to be free, fair, transparent and credible.”
Technological innovations
The commission’s drive to fully deploy technology in the conduct of elections has been one area it showed high-level determination. From the Smart Card Reader and Z-pad technology it used during the conduct of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections last year, the commission scaled up the innovation towards making the outcome of elections more credible and acceptable with the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during both the Isoko South, Delta State constituency and the Anambra State governorship elections.
Though the deployment of technology may have suffered a setback with President Muhammadu Buhari refusing to assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill, BVAS technology has so far shown that the innovation is the future of election credibility in Nigeria.
Appraising the use of the technology, the commission chairman noted: “As you are aware, the Commission piloted two important technological innovations in the Anambra election. The BVAS was deployed for the first time in a major election after the successful pilot in the Isoko South I State Constituency this year. The BVAS has replaced the Smart Card Reader for verification and authentication as part of our improved voter accreditation process. The new technology was designed in-house by INEC engineers.
“Like every new technology, glitches were observed and important lessons learnt. We wish to assure Nigerians that the commission has reviewed the performance of the BVAS and there will be a tremendous improvement leading to optimal performance in future elections. The BVAS has come to stay. So too is the uploading of polling unit results on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real-