Although it is almost a week since the conduct of the June 18, 2022 Ekiti State Governorship election, the major positives as well as the anomalies, which characterized the process have remained the subject of intense debates among election stakeholders. With the 2023 general elections looming large, interlocutors of Nigeria’s democracy, and by extension, its electoral process seem eager to begin making projections based on the performance of the electoral umpire in its most recent outings. Added to the fact that the Ekiti poll is one of the two off-cycle governorship elections on the to do list of INEC, close watchers of the electoral process were keen on keeping an eye on what would work, as well as things, which could possibly go wrong.
This intense scrutiny of the Election Management Body (EMB) also came from the projection of any election now as a dress rehearsal in readiness for next year’s general elections. As such, every step INEC took to prepare for the Ekiti election came under the microscopic gaze of the public. More so, before Ekiti, INEC’s outings attracted some unflattering verdicts from elections and democracy enthusiasts. In the gubernatorial election in Anambra held in November 2021 for instance, INEC got a good deal of flaks from election analysts on account of the many hitches, which dogged the effective functioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). Notwithstanding the fact that the election outcome in Anambra was eventually adjudged by observers to be free, fair and credible, pro-democracy activists drew attention to the fact that the process was blighted by the grotesque reality of voter apathy, which was in turn induced by the specter of insecurity, which hung precariously all over the electoral terrain.
This much would be gleaned from the fact that only 10.7 percent of registered voters came out for accreditation on Election Day in Anambra State. The story was similar with respect to the conduct of the FCT Area Council elections. The process was seriously marred by technical glitches relating to the functionality of the BVAS. In Ekiti however, the electoral umpire appears to have been able to reset the template for the conduct of elections. This much would be gleaned from the verdict of election observers, who were largely surprisingly positive and upbeat in their assessments of INEC’s performance in Ekiti.
Nigeria’s frontline pro-democracy think tank, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) was one of the leading observer groups, which kept a close watch on the electoral process. CDD deployed 205 election observers across the 16 Local Government Areas of Ekiti State, just as it leveraged on the expertise of analysts who provided real time perspectives on the process from its Elections Analysis Centre (EAC). In both its preliminary and post-election reports, the leading democracy think tank gave INEC some thumbs up for its delivery in the areas of early arrival of poll officials, functionality of the BVAS, adherence to the procedures for accreditation and voting, and the counting and announcement of polling unit results. CDD-EAC also enthused that the collation process went on smoothly without widespread hitches or disruption of those critical processes as experienced in past elections.
On early arrival for instance, the group’s statement on the outcome of the election showed that 86 percent of INEC officials had arrived at their polling units by 8:30am. CDD-EAC data also indicated that “74 percent of INEC poll officials addressed voters before the 8:30am official time of poll opening, while 64 percent of polling units visited at 8:30am. CDD-EAC observer data also showed that 93 percent of the Polling Units in the areas observed had started voting by 9:30am.”
In terms of the functionality of the BVAS which was always a source of frayed nerves in many recent elections, INEC was clearly on top of its game. Observer reports pointed to a smooth sail in most polling units, and that hitches were recorded in only a few isolated cases. Even so, on Election Day one of the positives, which was documented was the resolve on the part of INEC officials to quickly move in and troubleshoot glitches relating to the BVAS. Similar sterling outcomes were documented in the areas of speedy upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), which many election observers pointed at as a massive step towards ensuring transparency in the electoral process. In its post mortem on the election the group concluded on the performance of the BVAS: “The deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was largely very successful. As at 6pm, our data showed that 84.3% of polling units covered had transmitted their results via BVAS. Likewise, the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) was also in full operation for the uploading of results in most of the polling units covered by our observers. As at 9.42pm when the CDD-EAC closed on election day, 99.7% of the results were available on the IReV. This level of compliance is commendable and should be the benchmark for future elections.”
These positive outcomes notwithstanding, the credibility of the Ekiti State gubernatorial election was still tainted by several documented incidents of vote buying. In the course of the collation of the results, several party agents, including the State Agent of the Social Democratic Party decried the pervasive level of vote buying by the dominant parties. However, several observer groups have been wary of accusations and counter claims emanating from political parties claiming only other parties bought votes. The observation findings showed all the major parties in the election bought voters and induced voters using various tactics, which undermined the sanctity the vote.
Even though anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) deployed to the electoral terrain, their presence could not effectively provide the deterrence to match the scale of the vote buying. Several observer groups were bemused by the nomenclature and lingo used to rationalise the brazen buying and selling of votes. The most popular of such was the dibo ko sebe, which translated from Yoruba means “vote in order to cook soup.” This apparently makes allusion to the excruciating poverty in the land, and the tactic of the politicians have been engaged in the illegal act of inducing voters with food, and cash during elections. As the results trickled in many observers assessed the outcome as yet another compromised election, in which induced voters produced the winner. The result as declared by INEC showed that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Abiodun Oyebanji scored 187,057 votes (53.16%) to defeat his closest challenger, Mr. Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who polled 82,211 (23.37%) of the votes, while Mr. Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came third with 67,457 (19.17%) of the votes.
Heading to Osun, where voters would be electing a governor come July 16, election analysts are raising fundamental questions relating to how vote buying can be drastically reduced, such that it does not determine the outcome. As such, pro-democracy activists have called for strategies, which would effectively reduce the anomaly of vote buying, not just in the next off cycle election, but also in the 2023 general elections. Pro-democracy groups who observed the Ekiti elections have called for the prosecution of those caught in the act of vote buying. But beyond the option of sanction, the strategy of enlightenment and creating a linkage between voting and policies, have been canvassed as ways to curb the ugly trend.
On the other hand, the spread of fake news, was apparent in Ekiti, just as there are projections that the trend could be pervasive in Osun. This was why observer groups like CDD made the effort to set up a fake news hub, which worked round the clock on Election Day to track and fact-checking all forms of misinformation capable of undermining voter confidence and participation in the election. Similar efforts would be required in Osun, and by extension the 2023 general elections, if they are to be free, fair and credible.
