November 26, (THEWILL) – Following the conclusion of the November 11, 2023 off-Cycle Governorship Elections in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi States, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun preparation for the next off-cycle governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States. The two elections will be held next year.
INEC has fixed September 21, 2024, for the Edo State governorship election while that of Ondo State will be held on November 16, 2024.
The electoral body said the announcement was in line with Section 178 (2) of the Nigerian Constitution, stipulating that election into the said offices shall be held not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the tenure of the last holder of the office.
Similarly, Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 requires INEC to publish the Notice for the Election not later than 360 days before the date of the election.
In a statement by its Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, INEC noted that the tenure of the governors of Edo and Ondo States will end on November 11, 2024, and February 23, 2025, respectively.
“The Edo governorship election will be held on Saturday, September 21, 2024.
“Party primaries will be held from February 1-24, 2024 while the submission of the list of nominated candidates via the online portal will start at 9 am on March 4, 2024 and close at 6 pm on March 24, 2024.
“The final list of candidates will be published on April 23, 2024, while the campaign in public by political parties commences on April 24, 2024, and ends 24 hours prior to Election Day on September 19, 2024,” INEC said.
Furthermore, INEC stressed that the Ondo governorship election would hold “on Saturday 16th November 2024.”
It added that party primaries would take place between April 6 and 27, 2024, while the submission of the list of nominated candidates via the online portal would start at 9.00am on April 29, 2024 and close at 6.00pm on May 20, 2024.
It noted that the final list of candidates would be published on June 18, 2024, while campaign in public by political parties commences on June 19, 2024 and ends 24 hours prior to Election Day on November 14, 2024.
INEC and Lessons from Nov 11, Elections
While reviewing the recently conducted governorship election in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi States, Chief Anthony Aikhunnegbe Malik (SAN) said the election didn’t produce anything different on the positive fronts.
“Expectedly, given the nefarious quest for power among the Nigerian elite, it was unsurprising that the elections conducted in the three states still wear the concomitantly inglorious barge of [massive] allegations of corrupt practices, irregularities and illegalities.
“The election was anything but free and fair. Elections in all three states were marred by all known and, in a few instances, novel forms of electoral malfeasances.
“For Kogi State, specifically, with every sense of responsibility and patriotism, this writer asserts that the recent election in Kogi is, by all indices, the worst so far in the nadir of unprecedented outlawry and violations of the provisions Electoral Act.
“The cases of the very security agents brought in to assist in the conduct of the election, but who looked the other way as the litany of crimes were perpetrated against the nation’s electoral values; reported and proven cases of pre-filled polling unit results, unbridled violence that took the centre-stage, pervasive allegations of vote buying, bare-faced mutilation of polling unit election results, unprecedented cases of over-voting in virtually all the polling units and commercialisation of the entire spectrum of the electoral activities, all come to mind.
“In several reported cases, despite the deployment of BVAS machines in the Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa elections, it did nothing to stop the brazen rape of democracy and electoral heists perpetrated by both the officials of INEC and casts of candidates in the field. A litany of cases abound, where the results manually declared by INEC conflicted violently with the data revealed on the IREV portal where transmissions of the various data from the polling units across the state and where the actual number of voters fell far less than the scores of the candidate declared as winner. This was beside, or in addition to the reported cases of vote buying, violence, voters’ intimidation and harassment to mention but a few.
“In what should qualify as a last ditch effort in casting the pall of despondency and seeming helplessness on the common man, the electoral umpire elected, sadly, to ignore all the established cases of the brazen infractions of the Constitution, violations of the Electoral Act and the Guidelines for the conduct of the elections and declared Ahmed Usman Ododo of the APC as winner of the governorship election in Kogi.
“Similarly, INEC chose to look away from the visible scenarios of electoral outlawry which reigned supreme on Election Day in Bayelsa and Imo.
“In the build up to the elections, what was witnessed in Imo is akin to a clearance operation against opposition. Not even the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress was spared. Joe Ajaero survived, apparently by divine providence, to tell the story of his ordeal in the hands of state agents.
“By and large, it is disheartening that in this age and time, elections in Nigeria are still characterised by the kind of violence and electoral malfeasances on offer in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa during the last governorship elections in those states. It is a matter of monumental embarrassment and gargantuan shame, that our politicians and State actors see elections as “do or die”, he said.
Also speaking on the last off-cycle elections, a Development Consultant, Author, Columnist and Public Affairs Analyst, Jide Ojo said, “In my own assessment, the good thing about the off-cycle polls are as follows: The elections started on time, more so than they did during the general election earlier in the year. There was priority voting for the elderly, pregnant women, nursing mothers and persons with disabilities.
“The three elections were concluded on the first ballot, while there was timely uploading of the results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal. However, the bad aspects include the reported incidences of vote buying, abduction and holding of poll officials’ hostage in some communities such as Brass LGA in Bayelsa State. The death of George Sibo, also allegedly occurred at a Collation Centre in Twon Brass also in Bayelsa. Furthermore, is the reported bypass of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Device, better known as BVAS, by some unscrupulous INEC officials. The ugly incidents also include the discovery of pre-filled result sheets, in some of the LGAs in Kogi.
“According to INEC, reports indicate that the incidents occurred in Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi and Okene Local Government Areas. The most serious incidents occurred in Ogori/Magongo, affecting nine of 10 Registration Areas. This is preposterous!
“Another baffling thing is the press statement issued by YIAGA Africa on Sunday, November 12, 2023. According to the civil society organisation which was accredited to observe the polls, reports from some watching the Vote observers in Imo State indicate elections did not take place in 12% of YIAGA Africa sampled polling units. These cases were prevalent in Orsu, Okigwe, Oru East, and Orlu LGAs.
Yiaga Africa also monitored the upload of results on the IREV, especially those from polling units where elections did not hold. The group gave a breakdown of about 40 of such PUs where elections did not hold in Imo, yet results were uploaded on the IREV Portal. How so?
I have also seen a number of inflated results, where the number of voters is higher than the figures of those who were accredited in the polling unit. This is a clear evidence of result manipulation and over-voting. This happened because the integrity measures put in place in Section 64(1 – 9) of the Electoral Act 2022 were ignored by the presiding officers, as well as the collation and returning officers”.
On the way forward, political analysts agreed that the way forward for the INEC is for it to improve on the standard of the two off-cycle governorship elections coming up next year in Edo and Ondo States.
They also believe that the INEC should, after reviewing the last elections, put the lessons learned thereof to get set for the next year’s elections.
Speaking with THEWILL, a member of the Campaign for Democracy, Comrade Sola Olawale, said the electoral umpire should improve on its performance in the last three governorship elections.
He said September next year is a long time for INEC to improve itself.
“Let me first commend the INEC for the promptness of its officials and a better effort in the usage of BVAS in the last elections.
“I want INEC and the Security agencies led by the police as well as the Economic and Finance Crimes Commission (EFCC) to curb the issue of vote buying which was prevalent in the last elections.
‘It is up to INEC to show improvement. Good enough, unlike the last elections, it will be one election per day, the Edo State election in September and the Ondo election in November. I believe INEC and the security agencies will do well in the elections”, Olawale said.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
