Sen. Uche Ekwunife of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has
been declared winner of Anambra Central Senatorial election held on
Feb. 23.
Ekwunife, who was at the National Assembly for APGA, between
2010 and 2014, defeated the incumbent, Sen. Victor Umeh of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to emerge winner.
Prof. Charles Ogu, the Senatorial returning officer for the
district, said that the PDP candidate polled 18,412 votes ahead of
APGA’s 14,403.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) which fielded Mr Sylvester
Okonkwo came third with 1,144 votes.
In another result, the PDP also won the House of Representative
seat for Anaocha, Dunukofia and Njikoka Federal Constituency as its
candidate Mr Valentine Ayika scored 16,084.
The incumbent, Mr Dozie Nwankwo of APGA was second with 14, 582
while Mr Elijah Onyeagba of the APC scored 2, 574 to come third in
the contest. (NAN)
Read more uche-ekwunife-of-pdp-wins-anambra-central-senate-seat/
YIAGA
This is not the Election Nigerians Expected By Moshood
Isah
“These were not the elections Nigerians wanted; they were not
the elections Nigerians expected; and, most importantly, they were
not the elections Nigerians deserved. Our election commission must
improve its capacity to deliver credible elections and our
political parties must play according to the rules. Failure to do
so could fundamentally threaten our democracy” . These are the
words of the YIAGA AFRICA’s Watching The Vote Board Chairman at a
press conference on the preliminary findings from the 2019
Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Nigerians continue to ask the questions on when an election can
be conducted with a 100 percent early deployment of materials and
zero percent violence as delays in logistics deployment along with
the perennial electoral disruptions reportedly featured in
Saturday’s Presidential and National assembly elections. Having
been postponed for one week due to logistic reasons, expectations
from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and
security agencies skyrocketed with the believe that everything must
have been fixed before the new date.
Delay in deployment of election materials and issues relating to
ballot box snatching, attack on polling officials, disruption of
election materials seem to remain in constant competition for
prominence in virtually every major election in Nigeria. The
hydra-headed issues bedeviling Nigeria’s elections always feature
even after all stakeholders declare their readiness to ensure the
elections are hitch-free. This leaves several questions regarding
the competency of agencies responsible in ensuring peaceful and
credible elections in the country.
For instance, credible elections data released by arguably the
largest movement committed to credible elections, YIAGA AFRICA says
as at 12pm on Election Day, at least 110 critical incidents across
the country primarily concerning late arrival of election materials
to polling units. While electoral officials are expected to be at
polling units by 7.30am so that set-up can commence ahead of the
8am commencement of simultaneous accreditation and voting,
statistical reports by YIAGA AFRICA’s #WatchingTheVote observers
reported that INEC Officials arrived at only 31% of polling units
as at 7.30am. Furthermore, statistical reports says as at 10:00 am,
only 41% of polling units had opened across the country while even
as at close to 12pm in the afternoon, INEC has not achieved 100
percent logistics deployment as statistics says 74% of polling
units had opened nationally. This is even trying to overlook the 7
percent polling units where YIAGA AFRICA reported that the card
reader was not used for accreditation either due to lack of
availability or deliberate violation of the electoral
guidelines.
In this vein, elections went into the nights in a handful of
polling units with apparently no proper preparation for logistics
for a conducive environment which leaves the credibility of the
process in jeopardy. In addition to logistics challenges is the
security issue which has marred Nigeria’s elections overtime.
Report has it that at least 90% of polling units recorded presence
of security personnel which in itself is not a complete standard
when it comes to conducting credible elections as it is expected
that security agents will be seen at all close to 120,000 polling
units across the country.
But despite the presence of security checkpoints across the
country, reports of political thugs moving in motorcycles in Lagos
disrupting the process at will leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of
questions are being asked on how political thugs accessed polling
units, collation centers and Registration Area Centers to either
cart away ballot box, destroy election materials and assaulting
voters and election materials. Verified reports from media and
election observers show that, citizens, observers or election
officials were harassed, beaten, intimidated or even killed in some
states across Nigeria. More so, at the risk of propagating
unverified reports, social media footages of injured citizens and
burning of electoral materials remain a real cause of security
concerns.
It is difficult to understand if security officials deployed at
polling units gave way for hoodlums to execute their heinous plans
or this was done with the support of security officials as alleged
at some quarters. While it remains surprising that the Police
Inspector General, Adamu Muhammed confidently reiterated the force
readiness to protect every live especially during this period,
Nigerians are yet to see major arrests of these electoral
offenders.
Recommendations are not always far-fetched but its
implementation to the later remains a major challenge the nation
has faced overtime. Election and security analysts have called for
comprehensive framework for the prosecution of electoral offenders
in the country. Unfortunately, just as Nigerians have hardly see
arrest of electoral offenders, it becomes impossible to prosecute
them. Thus if heads do not role and people in the position of
authority do not account for the happenings in their jurisdictions,
then the vicious circle of logistics and security issues will
continue to feature in every electoral process.
Moshood Isah is the Media Officer of YIAGA AFRICA
Misah@yiaga.org