Professor Dung Pam Sha of the Department of Political Science, University of Jos, has urged President Bola Tinubu to demonstrate commitment to electoral reform by convening a presidential dialogue on elections in the country.
He equally appealed to the National Assembly to eliminate all ambiguities in the 2022 Electoral Act like pre-election matters and election petitions, results collation and electronic transmission of results under Section 64 of the Electoral Act 2022.
Speaking in Kaduna on Thursday at a one-day Multi-stakeholders dialogue on rebuilding trust in the electoral process and election organized by EU-Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria, the political scientist lamented that electoral processes in the country are poor.
He alleged that there were unreleased voter cards and the voter register was fraught with multiple names even when claims of a clean-up were made by the authorities.
He also lamented the recruitment of Commissioners, Presiding Officers, INEC State Collation and Returning Officers, ad-hoc staff and recruitment of senior Election Management Bodies (EMB) staff/political appointees, saying that it results in apparent manipulation of the election processes
According to him, “INEC Adhoc staff manipulates the results in connivance with political parties and also manipulates the BVAS with party capture by political factions or powerful individual financiers and the imposition of candidates through rigging of inner-party elections, bribing EMB officials, sponsor of electoral violence, elections rigging and demand by contending candidates or parties to “meet in court” syndrome.”
He noted that the judiciary is not helping matters, saying, “The syndrome of “go to court if you are not satisfied with the outcome of the elections” or “let’s meet in court” sends a bad signal about the impartiality of the judiciary. Dismissal of cases on technicalities, the tribunal and conflicting judgements. Security agencies are sometimes partisan and sometimes scare voters from polling units.”
Incumbent governors, according to him, do not help matters by controlling party structures, violating party rules, imposing candidates and rigging election processes.
The political scientist noted that building trust is very difficult and takes time while losing trust is brutally simple and often fatal, pointing out that the effects of trust deficit increase in pre-election and post-election litigation violence, competition by political party members to engage in electoral
crime and also increased political polarization and conflict.
To restore hope, confidence and trust in the electoral process and institutions, he suggested the need to strengthen the electoral legal framework, and constitution to be reviewed to grant local government councils developmental autonomy and rewriting of SIEC laws to align with electoral law and avoid variations at state levels.
He also suggested the strengthening of the autonomy of Elections Management Bodies, stressing that INEC should be reformed to ensure its political, administrative and financial independence.
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