Nigeria Content Online

The Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) disappointed residents of the
Federal Capital Territory when it failed to conduct the hitch-free area
council elections it promised. Although the polls produced winners,
stakeholders have judged them as flawed.

Public anger

The election was
scheduled to start at 8 am, but in some centres, especially in the
Municipal Area, it did not begin until a few minutes after midday.

Many voters who
trooped out in the morning to vote waited endlessly for the polling
officials, mainly members of the Nigerian Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to
arrive. Some left for their homes in anger and wondered why the
government could not get things right for once.

Onyeke Isiaka, an Abuja resident, blamed the electoral commission for failing to deliver on its promises.

“Despite all the
announcement and assurance they gave us, we are here and they are not
to be found anywhere. They will blame us for not coming to vote, saying
there is voter’s apathy, but that is not the situation, as you can
see,” he said.

An inefficient organisation

When polling
officers eventually showed up at the polling centre in Area 2, Garki,
they complained that the electoral commission had refused to pay them
their allowances and therefore, refused to work.

The corps members
told NEXT that they had slept on bare floors at the commission’s FCT
headquarters the night before, and were served bad food at 4:00 am.
They accused the commission of planning to cheat them. Some of the
corps members had to be given partial payment before they would agree
to go to the polling stations.

The commission
also did not provide the staff with polling desks. A corps member at
the Area 8, Garki, polling centre said they were given only a cubicle
and voting materials, but were not given desks or chairs.

“When we got here,
there was no place to sit down. They did not give us desks. It was just
the cubicle and the materials,” said the corps member, who requested
anonymity. “They told us that when you get there you will find some
seats, but when we got here, the people here weren’t friendly and
before we could get a place to sit down, it took some time.” The corps
members had to plead with nearby residents to provide them a chair and
a table, but the votes had to be poured on the ground to be counted as
the table they got was too small to contain the materials.

The commission had
also promised to provide food for the polling staff, and though the
contract to do this was awarded, the food was not delivered during the
elections. And some polling stations, such as the one located in Old
Secretariat in Area 1, Garki, did not have a single police officer
assigned to them.

The situation
worsened when, at about midday, commuters were busy plying the road as
if nothing serious was going in the city. There were no policemen on
hand to check their movement or provide safeguards against possible
election riggers.

Low participation

INEC’s poor
management may have been responsible for the low voter turnout at
Saturday’s elections. For instance, one polling centre at Section 1,
Area 2, Garki, had 1325 registered voters, but only 47 people voted;
while a second unit in the area had 565 voters with only 35
participating. Another unit in Section 2, Area 2, Garki, 235 out of the
350 registered voters came around, but in a Wuse polling centre,
located at Niger Insurance Staff Quarters, there were 891 registered
voters, but none of them came out at all to cast their votes. In Prince
and Princess and Gaduwa Estates in Duboyi, voting started at about 1:00
pm for an election that is expected to end at 3:00pm.

A polling staff in
Wuse, who declined to be named, hinted that some voters came out twice
in the morning, but when they did not see the any staff, they went home
and vowed never to return.

INEC blames NYSC

When contacted,
INEC FCT resident electoral commissioner, Stephen Manya, admitted that
the commission did not do its best in providing adequate logistics, but
blamed the corpers for the late commencement of voting exercise.

“Materials are
there, but corpers are complaining that unless they are paid, they will
not move. That is what is causing this delay within the metropolis. We
are addressing the issue. We have released money to pay them, the money
has been there. Some of them were paid around 4 pm on Friday, but I
wonder why all were not paid at the same time. I don’t know what
happened, they didn’t pay them and now the corpers are holding us to
ransom.”

Promises unfulfilled

INEC chairman,
Maurice Iwu, had stated at a stakeholders meeting organised for the
April 10 polls, that conducting a free and fair election in the FCT was
significant because the territory was one of the most cosmopolitan
centres in the country.

“Although the
election of April 10, 2010 is what many will see as ordinary council
polls, the election is of tremendous importance and should be of great
interest to all Nigerians. For one, the FCT election is the second
stride in our reassuring march to 2011 general elections,” he said.

Mr. Iwu said the
FCT has emerged as a signpost to the outside world on prevailing
tendencies within the urban elite, and that what happens in FCT
reverberates across the country.

However, this dream may not have been realised in the Saturday elections.