The International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has raised an alarm over the way and manner the voter registration exercise for the forthcoming Anambra State governorship and local government elections is being conducted.

The group in a statement signed by its Board Chairman Emeka Umeagbalasi and Head, Publicity Desk, Comrade Justus Ijeoma, pointed out serious lapses in the exercise, among them the absence of INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) staff at many of the polling booths, and the inadequate time set aside for the exercise.

Intersociety warned that the exercise might end in failure, thus leading to the elections not being credible. The group in the statement released yesterday from its headquarters in Onitsha, the commercial capital of Anambra State, went down memory lane and gave useful advice on how to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the past.

Below is the text of the statement entitled “History and Menace of Roguish Voters’ Register in Anambra State and Need for Ongoing Voters’ Registration & Revalidation to be Grounded in Popular Participation & Administrative Competence”:

‘It is most likely that the voter registration and revalidation exercise commenced in all the 4,611 polling centres in Anambra State on Monday, 19^th of August, 2013, will end up in monumental failure. The important exercise is to last till Monday, 26^th of August, 2013, a period of only seven days. The exercise is in line with Sections 9(1) and 10(1) of the Electoral Act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2010. It is expected to cover “registration of unregistered voting Nigerians of Anambra State residency, revalidation and updating of the voters’ register including deletion of names of the dead voters from the register and entering in the Supplementary Voters List of the registered voters who moved from their previous electoral constituencies to new ones as well as entering in the said list names of the newly registered voters.

‘The exercise generally targets the qualified voters of 18 years and above and expected to address complaints arising from loss, damage, destruction, tearing and defacing of voters’ cards as well as those voters whose names are missing in the register. It is the crucial component of INEC’s preparation for the November 16, 2013 governorship poll in Anambra State of Nigeria and a fundamental yardstick to measure the credibility or otherwise of the important poll. The conduct of the State LGA poll slated for 5^th of October, 2013, is also expected to be anchored on the register.

‘The Anambra Governorship poll and its judicial review had since 2006 served as the revolutionary fortress for free and fair poll and judicial sanctification of same in Nigeria. Way back in 1999, malevolent political godfatherism staged a successful coup in the state’s politics. This produced Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju’s puppetry civilian regime, which ended in disaster of unquantifiable proportions in May 2003. On May 29, 2003, another riotous political era gripped the state. It was headed by one Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige, which ended in compounded disaster in March 2006. The political riot of November 2004 was the peak of the disastrous regime, resulting in attempted kidnapping of the then sitting governor and burning down of public properties and other key infrastructures in the state. The regime was ousted judicially in March 2006.

‘The ground upon which the Nigerian judiciary saved Anambra State from political guerilla warfare and criminal enterprise was solely predicated on the sanctity of live votes cast in the governorship poll by the respected Anambra voters in April 2003, which were brutally stolen by an army of electoral robbers and buccaneers who snatched and made away with dozens of ballot boxes filled with cast live votes. In September 2003, the Nigerian Judiciary, invited and prayed by an assemblage of social saints, began enquiry into the disappearance and whereabouts of tens of thousands of live votes cast by the Anambra People in the said hallowed poll.

‘In August 2005, the Nigerian Judiciary through her Anambra State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, headed by Hon. Justice Garuba Nabaruma, recovered the stolen live votes and their rightful owner. The stealers of the live votes, who defended their electoral armed robbery with 524 fake witnesses as against the original mandate owner’s 45, fruitlessly objected to the hallowed recovery at the Appellate Court sitting in Enugu and on March 15, 2006, the renowned, erudite and revered appellate panelists headed by Hon Justice. Danladi Mohammed, under the administrative headship of Hon. Justice James Ogebe, reaffirmed the lower court’s findings and ordered the interloper government out of the Anambra State’s hallowed seat of power.

‘Indisputably speaking, this marked a turning point in the annals of Nigeria’s democracy, which has been mired in roguery since the 1960s. It not only introduced a staggered poll calendar into the country’s electoral poll system, but also removed Anambra State from national and global pariah status and returned it to the comity of credibly democratic federating units of the global community. Today, Anambra has set an impeccable pace, which has been successfully replicated in Edo and Ondo states. An attempt was made to replicate this wonderful feat in Ekiti and Osun states, but it was judicially corrupted.

‘In all, Anambra State is still not free from roguish voters’ registration and register management. Shrines and “evil forests” are still dotted with bogus and fake polling booths. There are still fake voters and non-living objects baptized as registered voters as well as undeleted dead voters and double registrants in the state’s voters’ register. In the 2010 staggered governorship poll in the state, out of INEC’s bogus figure of over 1.8 million registered voters so called, about 1.2 million were fictitious names. They included imported names like late Gani Fawehinmi , Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Wole Soyinka, etc. This explained why out of about 600,000 living voters found in the roguish register, only 300,000 of them voted. Then, we concluded and insisted that “it is better to have 10,000 live votes than to have 1 million dead votes.”

‘Therefore, a credible voter’s register is a sin qua non for participatory poll, including Anambra governorship poll billed for November 16, 2013. Sadly, reports reaching us clearly indicate that the ongoing voter registration and revalidation exercise, supposedly taking place in the state’s 4,611 polling booths may end in monumental failure. Our checks reveal that while INEC staff pasted names of the registered voters in all polling booths as the commission earlier promised, most of the polling booths remained unmanned as at Wednesday, this date being 21^st of August, 2013. In other words, INEC staff were found absent in most of the polling booths visited.

‘By implication, those with their missing names and pictures do not have INEC staff to attend to them. Also, those who want to register or those wanting their names to be included in the INEC’s Supplementary List of Voters found no INEC staff to attend to them. Our investigators went round Ogbaru, Idemmili North and South, Onitsha North and South LGAs and found no INEC staff in most of the polling booths. Our calls to Aguata, Orumba North and South, Nnewi North and South and Oyi LGAs yielded similar outcomes. In Ogbaru LGA, INEC staffs were seen only at the Odekpe Central School.

‘We wish to object to seven days designated for the important exercise. That is to say Monday, 19^th of August to Monday 26^th of August, 2013. By the Electoral Act of 2013, official closing of the exercise, as in registration of unregistered eligible voters, updating and revision and revalidation of the voters’ register is on 16^th of September, 2013, which is 60 days to any polling date.

‘It is not only that the closing date should be extended but also INEC staff must man all the polling booths and attend to the affected citizens diligently and judiciously. Machinery should be put in place by the commission to check absenteeism and lateness on the part of its erring staff. The presence of the INEC’s staffs in all the 4,611 polling booths will also serve as security against defacing or tearing of the pasted names of the registered voters and scare away children as well as adults with malicious intents.

‘Enough publicity including radio jingles and television announcements should be introduced and consolidated by INEC throughout the exercise. The era of election rigging must be permanently made irrevocable in Anambra State of Nigeria. The cleanliness and integrity of the voters’ register is a trusted path to free, fair and participatory poll.’

•Photo shows INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.

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