Rivers LG Poll lacks credibility – Election observer group, Peoples Advocates

An observer group which monitored Saturday’s local government elections in Rivers State, The Peoples Advocates, TPA, has said that the exercise was not credible due to a number of irregularities.

TPA made the observation in its report on the election.

The highly contentious election was held across 23 local government areas in Rivers State, despite moves by the camp of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister Nyesom Wike, to stop the exercise.

Governor Sim Fubara went ahead with the poll, defying a court order which retrained the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, from conducting the election.

Candidates of the All People’s Party, APP, believed to be Fubara’s loyalists, won 22 out of the 23 LGAs.

However, although it commended the Rivers electoral commission for conducting the election, TPA noted that the poll witnessed several irregularities.

Parts of the report read, “While we appreciate the effort of RSIEC to conduct this election at such a tough time as this in the political history of Rivers State, we believe that there is need for improvements in order to set a fair playing ground for all political parties and candidates in order to ensure a free and fair election.”

The irregularities, which the observer group said undermined the credibility of the election, include absence of result sheets, violence and improper collation process, among others.

“At Phalga LGA, D. Line Ward 1 units 8,9,10; Ward 4 units 48, 49, 50, 51; Ogbunabali Ward 3, Ward 2, Oroworukwu Ward 9 units 5,6,7,8,9 etc, the absence of Result Sheet undermined the credibility of the process because Agents of Labour Party and other interested Political Parties asked for Result Sheets and moved to stop the polls if the Result Sheets weren’t produced.

“This systemic flop of RSIEC affected the credibility of the polls and risked the life of the Ad-hoc staff.”

The group further faulted the manual voting process used in the election. According to TPA, manual voting is not only outdated but is also prone to manipulation of results.

“The Manual Voting process of RSIEC and use of incident form is archaic and prone to manipulations. Electronic Voting and transmission of results is the best way to go in order to have a credible free and fair elections wherein the votes of the electorates or voters will truly count.”

The report added that “early closure of polls disenfranchised some electorates”.

Continuing, the report said: “Materials did not arrive in time or at all in some polling units and cubicles were not used for secret balloting. The implication is that such open balloting may sway the votes of electorates who may suffer reprisal attacks if they don’t vote a particular party or candidate.

“Our Situation Room observed that the process did not create any solid internal mechanism for grievance or dissent before the results are announced. Such pattern may encourage violence or discourage genuine candidates who have legitimate complaint.

“Irregularities in some polling units should be addressed before results are announced. This is to avoid announcing results in polling units where elections did not hold or where the election was fraught with fraud, snatching of ballot materials, violence etc. and some of such incidents were witnessed in this election and the candidates affected, would be left with the only option of going to court.

“This is a systemic flaw, capable of occasioning injustice.

“Our observers were lost as to where your Ward and State Collation should take place and who is allowed into your “holy sanctuary” to witness the collation and how you arrived at your results.

“A closed collation process is prone to manipulations and should be avoided. Cumulated Results should be fact-checked with polling unit results for credibility. The truth is that the entire election lacks credibility.”

TPA, in its report, added that the phone contacts of electoral officers in-charge of LGAs and wards were not given to observers, as such when an incident occurred, observers were lost as to who to contact to respond to such incident(s).

Further reporting what it described as “less room for opposition”, the group added, “The entire process is skewed to favor the candidate or party of the Government in power. If the Government of the day was in a good relationship with PDP, PDP would have won the entire seats.

“Such a pattern stiffens fair competition and churns out unpopular or incompetent leaders who may just be enjoying political patronage or settlement.”

To ensure an improvement in future elections, The Peoples Advocates forwarded a number of recommendations to the Rivers electoral commission.

“Result sheets should be provided in all the polling units to ensure a credible process and also ensure the safety of ad-hoc staff. Rivers State Electoral Laws be amended to adopt electronic voting. Cubicles should be provided in all polling units in the circumstance of manual voting. Rivers State Electoral Laws and RSIEC guidelines should make room for practical grievance mechanisms (especially in cases of overwhelming evidence of irregularities) before election results are announced in order to encourage genuine aspirants.”

Other recommendations are, “The Collation process should be more transparent and open to all. Ad-hoc staff should be appropriately trained and should be advised to only close polls at the closing time stipulated by RSIEC. A fair playing ground should be set for all candidates to have a fair chance of winning. Democracy is a government of the people not a government of the government by the government and for the government.”