Opinion: e-transmission of Election Results And The Conspiracy Against Democracy – By SUNDAY EZE
The growing demand for free, fair, credible and transparent elections in Nigeria suffered another set back as the National Assembly shut the door against e-transmisson of election results from polling units. The parliamentarians deliberately killed and buried a growing national aspiration with obnoxious technicalities. Surprisingly, the same National Assembly approved the use of any other electronic means during elections as INEC deems fit but hinged the electronic transmission of results on the express approval by National Assembly and the Nigerian Communications Commission. Unbelievable! In his view on the subject under review, the former INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega said; “the National Assembly’s decision to allow INEC to use electronic voting without the electronic transmission of results is counterproductive. You can’t permit INEC on one hand to use electronic voting and not use electronic transmission of results because usually, they go as a package. Once there is a robust software and hardware for doing so, it now brings efficiency, transparency and real-time ability to see the result as they are transmitted from the polling unit to a National Collation Centre.” The will of the majority is abused or circumvented if and when policies and institutions established to drive credibility of elections are selfish, partisan, handicapped or outrightly ridiculous. In Nigeria, the need for free, fair and credible elections has been in the front burner of electoral reforms. The Electoral Reform Act of 2010 was borne out of a genuine desire to advance and address this course. But the amendment of Clause 52 (2) of the Electoral Act, 2010, which seeks to adopt electronic transmission of election results in the Senate and House Committees on INEC was roundly rejected. On the clause-by-clause consideration of the report, selfish, partisan and regional interests prevailed over national interest. Both chambers came up with a surprise package. A self-serving package not reflective of the wishes and desires of Nigerians. While fifty two out of eight-eight Senators at the plenary voted against e-transmission of election results, twenty eight said yes. Incidentally, all the fifty-two Senators who voted against the proposed amendment are all members of the All Progressive Congress (APC). One sore reminder of the disingenuous nature of politicians was that the chairman Senate Committee on INEC, Kabir Gaya voted against the recommendation of his own committee. One had envisaged that the APC will take a detour from the old normal by bequeathing a legacy of unprecedented electoral reforms before 2023. Instead they came up with a retrogressive clause which stands logic on its head and hands over power of determining how and when to transmit election results to the Nigerian Communications Commission and the National Assembly. No Act of the National Assembly or any other piece of legislation for that matter is superior to the Constitution. Therefore, the powers of INEC as enshrined in third Schedule, Part 1(f) Section15 says: “INEC has power to organise, undertake and supervise all elections to the offices of the President, Vice President, Governor and Deputy Governor of a state, and to the membership of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state of the Federation.” The Constitution further provides that INEC operations shall not be subject to the direction of anybody or authority.” In fact, INEC understood the letters of the law and the constitution as they relate to their responsibilities and shunned the invitation by the House of Representatives on the issue. This strange parliamentary enactment could possibly be applicable only in Nigeria. What this invariably means was that we now have three electoral bodies in Nigeria namely: INEC, NCC and NASS. The hallmark of democracy is deeply engraved in free, fair and credible elections. One vital element is the transparent nature of the process in arriving at the desired answers. Election rigging which involves all sorts of desperate measures and manipulations in forms of ballot snatching, ballot stuffing, change of results at polling units or along the way to submission, intimidation of candidates using political thugs and conventional security agencies and even killing of innocent citizens are all good reasons to transmit the election results direct from polling units.