Election will be conclusive, INEC promises

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured the people that Saturday’s election will be conclusive at the first ballot.

To achieve this, the commission said it is deploying five National Commissioners and 12 Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) to supervise the election.

The 2018 governorship election was declared inconclusive by the Returning Officer, Joseph Fuwape, after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Ademola Adeleke, scored  254,698 votes, while Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and incumbent governor, polled 254,345 votes.

Fuwape had explained that the total registered voters in the five polling units where elections were cancelled was 3,498, which was higher than the difference between the votes of the leading candidates. Oyetola was eventually declared winner after a rerun.

INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu gave the assurance at a stakeholders’ meeting in Osogbo, the state capital. Yakubu also reassured political parties that it will remain neutral, adding that the electorate will determine who wins the election.

According to him, the commission has learnt lessons from the identified issues in the conduct of the 2018 governorship election.

He said: “With every election we learn lessons, and there are improvements in the subsequent elections. Yes we agree there were issues in the 2018 election, but we have learnt lessons, and that’s why we are deploying five National Commissioners and 12 RECs to support the process being handled by our state office this time.

“Let me reassure political parties, candidates and the electorate that the choice of who becomes the next governor is entirely in the hands of voters. As I have repeatedly said in previous engagements with stakeholders, INEC will not take any action to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate. Our focus is on the processes and procedures as provided by law.

“So far, we have successfully implemented 12 of the 14 activities contained in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election. The only two outstanding activities are the last day of campaign by political parties which ends at midnight of July 14 and election day activities on July 16.”

On storage and safety of sensitive materials for Saturday’s election, Yakubu said arrangements have been made to warehouse it at the INEC state office, following the suspension of the long standing arrangement with the CBN.

“We had no issues when we piloted the arrangement in Ekiti State and the same arrangement we’re making for the Osun governorship elections, the materials are arriving today (yesterday), we have earmarked a place in our office where we will store the materials ahead of the election and then on Thursday, before we move the materials to the local governments.

“We will as usual invite all the political parties, agents and security agencies, the media and observers to inspect the materials before we move them to councils. We had no problem in Ekiti and we are repeating the same thing in Osun.”

On vote buying, Yakubu stressed that ‘the commission has said repeatedly that vote buying should be everybody’s concern, not just what the electoral commission can do, what we can do, we’ve done but ultimately it is an enforcement issue and enforcement has to be by way of prosecution’.

Also speaking, Supervising National Commissioner for Ogun, Ondo and Osun states, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, said the successful conduct of the election depends on the disposition of the voters.

According to him, upon successful completion of the Ekiti election, all eyes and attention have shifted to Osun. “As such, INEC has ramped up activities in preparation for the Osun election, which is expected to consolidate and improve on the success of the Ekiti poll.

“In an effort to achieve this great feat, the commission has harvested the challenges and lessons learnt in the previous Anambra elections and the just concluded Ekiti governorship election to improve our processes and procedure, under the 2022 Electoral Act.

“It must however be noted that the onus is on the people to come out en-mass, conduct themselves peacefully and exercise their franchise,” he added.

Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Prof. Abdulganiy Raji, in his welcome address, said the 2018 governorship election and the 2019 general elections were reviewed, and flash points identified.

He, however, said strategies have been mapped out to resolve issues that can truncate the process, including conversion of Voting Points (VPs) to Polling Units (PUs) to ensure expansion of Voter Access to PUs.

“This increased the PUs in Osun from 3,010 to 3,763. To ensure adequate security and peaceful elections, PUs were moved away from often contested places such as the front of houses of politicians, palaces, religious centres, to public buildings or open spaces. All non-sensitive materials have been received, distributed to the local government areas, sorted and batched to PU Level and ready to be conveyed to the Registration Area Camps (RACs).

“Any moment from now, we expect the delivery of the sensitive materials. We have produced Maps of all PUs in the state both electronically and hardcopy for ease of movement and location to PUs by the Poll Officials, staff of INEC and election monitors, observers and the security agents,” Raji said.

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