The Independent National Electoral Commission has come under fire
after declaring Orji Kalu winner of a senatorial election in apparent
disregard of its own guidelines.
Mr Kalu, a former governor of Abia State and candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of Abia
North Senatorial District election conducted on February 23, 2019.
Mr Kalu polled 31,201 votes, according to Charles Anumudu, the
INEC returning officer for the district.
The incumbent senator, Mao Ohuabunwa of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), trailed Mr Kalu with 20,801 votes in the election.
However, Mr Ohuabunwa argued, and election and civic engagement
experts agreed, that the election should have been declared
inconclusive without a winner.
‘Arbitrary pronouncement’
According to a breakdown of the result by INEC, 38,526 votes were
cancelled during the exercise, a number significantly greater than
the margin of 10,400 between Messrs Kalu and Ohuabunwa.
“The election should have been declared inconclusive,” said election
expert Samson Itodo. “There should have been a re-run in the
district.”
Mr Itodo said INEC’s guidelines, drawn from Sections 26 and 153 of
the Electoral Act, required a by-election when the margin of victory
between highest and second highest votes scorers in an election is
less than the total number of cancelled voters.
“This should not be that hard, we saw the precedent in Osun State
governorship election last September,” Mr Itodo said.
The electoral umpire declared inconclusive, the governorship
election that held in Osun State on September 22, 2018, citing
insufficient lead by the PDP’s candidate in that election.
At the end of the collation of votes, the PDP candidate, Ademola
Adeleke, won majority votes of about 254,698 votes while Gboyega
Oyetola of the APC came a close second with 254,345 votes. Both
leading candidates had a difference of about 354 votes.
The commission explained that the total registered voters in the five
polling units where elections were cancelled is 3,498 votes. Since
that figure was higher than the difference between the votes of the
leading candidates, a re-run election had to be conducted, the INEC
chief explained.
A re-run was held a few days later on September 28, and Mr Oyetola
was declared the winner.
Similarly, in Abia South Senatorial District, INEC declared the
election inconclusive after ballots were interrupted in some locations
around Aba, the state’s commercial capital. Although leading by a
good margin, incumbent Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe would have to
wait until Saturday to know whether or not he would be returned to
the Senate.
Mr Itodo said the senatorial election in Abia North should have
similarly been declared inconclusive, warning INEC to be wary of
arbitrary application of the law.
“We cannot have two different sets of electoral law,” Mr Itodo said.
As the nation prepares for governorship and state parliamentary
elections on Saturday, Mr Itodo warned INEC officials to desist from
declaring results under duress from politicians.
“Officials are coming under serious pressure to declare results
without due process, and they often cave in,” Mr Itodo said. “This is
a serious problem.”
Mr Itodo said politicians are exploiting a section of the electoral law
that prohibits INEC officials from reversing themselves on
pronouncements.
“The law says only the courts have the power to reverse any
pronouncement by electoral officers, politicians know this and they
are taken advantage,” he added.
Joseph Iloh, the resident electoral commissioner in Abia, was
unable to clarify the decision more than a week after INEC had taken
it, telling PREMIUM TIMES the matter would be addressed later by
INEC.
It was not immediately clear whether INEC would reverse its
decision before Saturday and allow supplementary elections to hold
in the district, alongside several others were polls were cancelled on
February 23.
A spokesperson for Mr Kalu was unavailable for comments
Saturday afternoon. But an aide to the former governor said his
principal should not be made to explain a decision taken by INEC.
“We are aware of the cancelled votes,” the aide said. “But all
enquiries should be directed to INEC and not my principal.”
Mr Ohuabunwa argued that INEC cancelled over 31,000 votes in his
home local government area of Arochukwu, where he expected
huge returns.
The senator estimated about 76,889 votes were cancelled in across
five local government areas that make up Abia North Senatorial
District by INEC, but said even by the official figures of the
commission, the election should have been declared inconclusive.
Mr Ohuabunwa, 61, has been in and out of the National Assembly
since 1999 when he was first elected a member of the House of
Representatives.
In 2015, he was elected senator representing Abia North, defeating
Mr Kalu, who was the candidate of the Progressive Peoples
Alliance, PPA, at the time.
Mr Kalu, who still has a corruption case with the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), challenged the results in court
and received a judgment for a rerun in early 2016.
Mr Ohuabunwa was again declared the winner in the March 2018
by-election, and Mr Kalu challenged the results again in court. The
Court of Appeal, however, affirmed the election of Mr Ohuabunwa in
November 2017, sealing the former governor’s fate.
Mr Kalu decamped to the APC ahead of the 2019 elections.
Legal analyst Liborous Oshoma described the declaration of Mr Kalu
as the winner of the election as a “terrible anomaly,” calling for
urgent reform of the electoral process.
“There has to be a reform that would make it difficult for officials to
just announce results and ask people to go to court,” Mr Oshoma
said. “There have to be consequences for electoral officers making
arbitrary and undue pronouncements that usually undermine the
electoral process.”
“We can describe what happened in Abia North as a terrible
anomaly, but INEC has a window to address it by conducting a by-
election in the cancelled areas on Saturday,” the legal analyst said.
Source:- Premiumtimesng
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