Bauchi PDP threatens to boycott Saturday’s supplementary election

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged a compromise by the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the resumption
of result collation in the Tafawa Balewa local government area of
Bauchi state, which was suspended during the March 9 governorship
election in the state.

Recall that on Tuesday a Federal High Court served its order on
the INEC directing the commission to shelve its planned resumption
of result collation in Tafawa Balewa LGA.

But, a statement on Thursday by the state chapter chairman of
the party, Hamza Akuyam, vowed that no supplementary elections
should take place in the State until the full governorship election
results collation, which ended with Tafawa Balewa local government,
are announced.

“Doing otherwise will be synonymous with writing a reseat
examination while the main examination has not been marked,” he
added.

The chairman alleged that the state’s Resident Electoral
Commissioner deliberately kept everybody waiting at the collation
centre until around 2pm in the afternoon when he abruptly surfaced
with a court injunction halting the collation exercise.

“To our greatest surprise the REC for no any discernible reason
kept the newly appointed Tafawa Balewa LGA Returning Officer (RO)
and other accredited participants waiting for several hours till
after 2 P.M. in the afternoon when he abruptly surfaced with a
Court Injunction which he claimed had halted the collation
exercise,” Mr Akuyam said.

The statement read: “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Bauchi
State chapter, has noted that a purported plan as announced by the
Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bauchi State Alhaji Ibrahim
Abdullahi to conduct a re-run election has generated a lot of
concern within and outside the state.

“The PDP, after a stakeholders meeting has therefore found it
necessary to appraise the general public and to highlight our
position un equivocally.

“It could be recalled that a committee appointed by INEC
Headquarters had thoroughly reviewed the 9th March Governorship
elections in Bauchi State and upheld the sanctity of the votes cast
by the people.

“Further to that, the INEC Headquarters which has demonstrated
time and again that it is an unbiased umpire, directed that
supplementary elections were no longer necessary and the collation
and declaration of the governorship election results in Tafawa
Balewa Local government elections should be concluded on 19th March
2019.

“This decision was generally hailed by all the political parties
involved except the APC.

“Thus, all was set for the collation to resume under tight
security at the Bauchi State INEC office at the appointed time in
the morning of 19th March, 2019.

“To our greatest surprise the REC for no any discernible reason
kept the newly appointed Tafawa Balewa LGA Returning Officer (RO)
and other accredited participants waiting for several hours till
after 2 P.M. in the afternoon when he abruptly surfaced with a
Court Injunction which he claimed had halted the collation
exercise.

“As this matter is subjudice, we do not intent to join issues
with INEC Head Quarters Abuja, given that their decision not to
hold supplementary elections in Bauchi State was methodically
articulated in a widely circulated press release and is still
binding.

“Nonetheless, it is very tragic that the REC has thrown another
puzzle into the already charged electoral atmosphere in the State
by announcing that he would conduct a supplementary election on
23rd March 2019 in certain Local Government Areas across the
State.

“The PDP wishes to state, for the records, that it is willing to
face the electorate at any time provided the elections are
organized in a transparent, free and fair manner.

“It will interest the members of the public to know that barely
48hrs to the proposed supplementary elections, the Party has
absolutely no idea of the identity, locations or total number of
poling units at which the elections will be held on Saturday.

“This is in spite of the fact that the PDP had written two
letters to the REC, on 13th and 20th March 2019 respectively, in
which we requested for the above information as well as the total
number of Permanents Voter Cards (PVCs) which had been issued and
collected in each of the affected units.

“The failure of the INEC REC Bauchi State to either acknowledge
or respond to our request is clearly designed to sabotage the PDP
at the proposed re-run elections. This is unacceptable.

“We also find it strange that the REC Bauchi State proposes to
conduct the supplementary elections even while the governorship
elections in Bauchi State have been collated from only 19 of the 20
Local Government Areas of the Bauchi State.

“It is a matter of common sense that supplementary elections are
only held after the conclusion of general elections and so, we are
amazed by the haste with which this re-run election is been
approached which pre-supposes that perhaps someone already knows
the unannounced results of the outstanding of the Tafawa Balewa
Local Government elections. This sounds like arithmetical
rigging.

“Our position therefore is that no supplementary elections
should take place in Bauchi State until the full governorship
election results collation which ends with Tafawa Balewa local
government are announced.

“Doing otherwise will be synonymous with writing a reseat
examination while the main examination has not been marked.

“It boggles the mind that the same REC superintended over the
final collation and announcement of the winner of the Bula/Lere
State Constituency of the same Tafawa balewa Local Government and
turned a blind eye to the results of the governorship which were
contested in the same poling units, by the same voters and collated
in the same wards and LGA Collations Centers.

“The position of the law stipulates that a re-run or
supplementary election can only be ripe upon conclusion of
collation of all the results in all the Local Government in the
state. This is as provided for in the Regulations and Guidelines
for the Conduct of Elections specifically paragraph 33 (a), (e) and
34 (e).

“By the combined effect of the aforementioned paragraph of the
Guidelines, the Commission shall wait to determine the margin of
lead between the two leading candidates for the governorship
elections after collation of the overall results of the entire
elections before deciding to embark on supplementary elections.

“Therefore, in this present situation in Bauchi State whereby
the results of whole one local government area has not been
collated i.e Tafawa Balewa, the commission cannot determine the
lead between the two candidates, hence there is no basis for the
supplementary elections in other poling units cancelled pursuant to
section 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act. until full collations of
the governorship election has been concluded.

“This is the basis for our demand for the immediate suspension
of the supplementary elections which as scheduled at 23rd March
2019 in Poling Units which are still shrouded in a mystery to us,
until after the collation of results from Tafawa Balewa LGA has
been concluded and the figures so obtained have been merged with
those obtained from the rest of the 19 LGAs to arrive at a true and
accurate Bauchi State Governorship election collated results.”