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Delta State
recorded the highest cases of ballot box snatching in Saturday’s
National Assembly election, followed by Bayelsa and Imo states, the
Independent National Electoral Commission said yesterday.

The chairman of the
commission, Attahiru Jega, said the three states topped the chart of
incidences of diverted ballot boxes, amongst several other poll
malpractices but gave no specific figure.

An official of the
commission, however, said the highest number of the violation recorded
by Delta State during the relatively well-conducted election was nearly
50.

A spread of
detailed statistics of malpractices, including violence, diversion of
materials, lateness of officials and materials, during the elections on
state-by-state basis was expected from the commission on Monday. Mr.
Jega’s spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, later said there were problems with
the analysis of the data and the information would be made available
Tuesday.

Large-scale malpractice

While addressing
international observer teams, including the Commonwealth, African Union
and the National Democratic Institute, Mr. Jega said the worst cases of
the breaches, were recorded in the three states.

“There were
problems with thuggery. Luckily the police have made a number of
arrests in fact earlier today I got information that the police have
arrested over 500 people, many of them thugs,” he said.

“Delta is a state where we received most cases of ballot box snatching followed by Bayelsa and then followed by Imo states”.

Mr. Jega’s remarks
came as a growing number of political parties that lost in the
elections, laid complaints to the commission, amid concerns that the
overwhelming success of the election generally could deny attention on
genuine cases of violations no matter how minute they may appear.

The parties blamed
their defeat on large scale rigging by the ruling parties, ballot paper
stuffing and box snatching and demanded a rerun and redeployment of
INEC staff alleged to have been compromised.

In Bayelsa State
where one of the most damning cases of violence was recorded, the
opposition parties accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
of hijacking electoral materials in connivance with security operatives
including the police, the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and some INEC
officials.

The parties, led by
the Labour Party (LP) Chairman in the state, Addo Badou, and the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) told the electoral commission that elections
did not hold in six local government areas of the state. They demanded
the immediate removal of the State Resident Electoral Commissioner,
Edwin Nwatalari, for alleged connivance with the politicians.

‘Cancel the poll’

In Kwara State
where the PDP dominated in the election according to results announced,
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Sunday threatened to contest the
results of the elections. Opposition parties have made similar calls in
Benue, Adamawa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

There are concerns
as to whether new measures including complex ballot paper security,
voters waiting behind to defend their votes and a customized ballot
box, are enough to deal with intricate electoral fraud scheme which
exploits human factor for a compromise.

In the case of Akwa
Ibom state where a raging rivalry between ruling PDP and the ACN
supporters recently reached violent dimensions, the parties say there
abound heaps of questions about the exercise and the commission says
they would be investigated when properly tabled before it.

After a startling
defeat margin on Saturday, the ACN has been quick to dismiss the
outcome of the elections and asked for a repeat as well as the removal
of the REC in that state, Maria Owi.

In a detailed
petition to Mr. Jega signed by the state chairman, Aniekan Akpan, the
party claims many of its agents were chased off from collation centres
by paid security agents siding with the ruling party while some corps
members were compelled to release surplus ballot papers to the party.

“Unused ballot
papers were not returned but were given to PDP members who used palm
kernels or bitter kola nuts to print in place of thumbs! What an
innovation,” the party said in the letter which spokesperson to Mr.
Jega, Kayode Idowu, said he could not confirm whether it had been
received as of Monday noon.

In a particular
case, in Essien Udim Local Government Area of the state, all registered
voters in the state voted for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP),
according to the announced results, leaving no allowance for voters who
died, travelled, took ill.

By yesterday, INEC headquarters could not confirm the total number
of petitions it has received already on the Saturday election.