Council Poll: Accord Candidate Lambasts ENSIEC Over Non Compliance With Election Procedures

Council Poll

OpenLife Nigeria reports that Chief John Nwobodo, Accord chairmanship candidate for Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, has lambasted the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission, ENSIEC, for not complying with the processes of conducting council poll.
His thoughts, titled ENUGU LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS 2024: A WASTEFUL EXERCISE BY THE ENUGU STATE INDEPEDNENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION (ENSIEC), are reproduced below, unedited

Judicial authorities define election as consisting of series of events which culminate in the actual holding of the election. In other words, an election is not just an event.

The Local Government Elections holding in Enugu today, 21st September, 2024 is one that is bedeviled with many invalidating factors, as it is riddled with a cacophony of complications and derelictions.

It will be recalled that preparations for the elections began in October, 2023 with the publication on 17th October, 2023 of notice of election then scheduled for 24th February, 2024.

The election date would later be rescheduled to 5th October, 2024 following the judgment of the High Court of Enugu State delivered on 1st December, 2023 in the case of Action Alliance v. Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission.

Just as preparations got underway for the conduct of the election on 5th October, 2024 that the 17 Local Government Areas hatched a plan and sued Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission praying the High Court to compel the Commission to conduct Local Government Elections on or before 21st September, 2024.

In what appeared to be an arranged litigation between the Plaintiffs (the LGAS) and the Defendant (ENSIEC), ENSIEC represented by the Attorney General of Enugu State filed a sham defence equivalent of not filing a defence and based on the porosity of the defence, the Court ordered ENSIEC to conduct local government elections on or before 21st September, 2024.

With a speed of light and even before obtaining the enrolled order or the judgment itself, ENSIEC the same day the judgment was delivered on 27th August, 2024 adjusted its previous timetable and guidelines and brought down the date of election from 5th October, 2024 to 21st October, 2024.

Thus, ENSIEC swung into action to conduct election within 25 days.

THE COMMISSION

The Commission can be described as clueless as they have manifested total lack of knowledge of election management including processes, procedure and laws governing election in Nigeria.

In a sane society, the Government ought to have disbanded them. However, that would be an impossible expectation from a Government that actually constituted the Commission to do its bidding or the bidding of the ruling party.

Any keen observer would agree that the Commission operates on the whims and caprices of its Chairman and Commissioners and not according to the dictates of law.

Perhaps, this is why all the provisions of the law regarding procedure of elections were jettisoned and completely disregarded. No aspect of the election complied with the requirement of the law- a very troubling situation.

THE ELECTION

From any angle one looks at it, the local government elections in Enugu State holding today is doomed from the start.

From the failure to issue adequate notice of election in accordance with section 28 of the Electoral Act, 2022 to breach of the requirement of submission of list of candidates not later than 180 days to the date scheduled for election as provided in section 29 of the Electoral Act.

Do we talk about providing just 14 days for campaigns against the 150 days provided for in section 94 of the Electoral Act or the failure to notice of polls as provided in section 44 of the Electoral Act.

These are not just mere irregularity but fundamental breaches which goes to the root of the election.

It is an unshakable position supported by judicial precedent established by both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court that no valid election can be conducted unless the Electoral Commission concerned issued complete notice as provided in the law.

These infractions constitute violation of section 150 of the Electoral Act which is to effect that any election conducted in breach of the procedures entrenched in the Act shall be invalid.

Besides, the above grave infractions, ENSIEC despite the pendency of notice of stay of execution of the judgment of 27th August, 2024 contrary to legal principles is going ahead with the election without the determination of the application before the Court.

These principles are well made in cases of IBWA Ltd v Pavex Intl. Co. (Nig.) Ltd, Ifeadi v. Atedze, Vaswani Trading Co v. Savalakh & Co among others.

Furthermore, there are no less than 10 suits challenging various aspects of the election.

This election has attracted the highest number of litigation more than any election in Enugu State underscoring the wide array of infractions that characterized the election.

Also, it amounts to impunity to conduct a contested election in respect of the 17 Chairmanship positions and some 56 Councillorship seats which are uncontested in favour of Accord (Party).

It is incontestable that Accord is the only political party in Enugu State that complied dutifully with the original Electoral Guidelines released by ENSIEC in October 2023.

Being the only political party that conducted its primaries and submitted its list of candidates to the Commission not later than 180 days to the Election they became the only candidates validly participating in the election.

Therefore, the contested election arrangement that has been made by ENSIEC not only undermines the victory of Accord but is a signification of ENSIEC’s disdain for the law.

It is only a matter of time for Accord and its candidates to be returned to their rightful positions.

DEPLOYMENT OF ELECTION LOGISTICS

Again, it is important to restate that since this present members of the Commission resumed office, their activities have remained largely opaque. There has been absence of engagement with critical stakeholders as well as lack of communication with political parties. As it was customary and legal for political parties to be invited to witness receipt of and distribution of sensitive electoral materials, ENSIEC did not invite political parties to witness distribution of materials to Local Government Areas. The exercise by snippets of information took place yesterday evening.

ELECTION DAY PROCEDURES

The remarks by the Chairman of ENSIEC on Wednesday, 18th September, 2024 at the Bon Platinum Hotel, Enugu that the Commission would not deploy BVAS for accreditation purposes citing lack of fund as an excuse came as a thunderbolt. Does the Commission need to be tutored that accreditation involves a triumvirate of voter’s card, smart card reader (BVAS) and voter register. No valid accreditation can be done in the absence of any of the three listed items as contemplated in section 47 of the Electoral Act, 2022. One wonders why ENSIEC should embark in the shenanigan of conducting election without the BVAS knowing that automatically nullifies the election.

ENSIEC has also failed to make categorical the post-election procedure regarding announcement of polling unit results and collation. This silence does not align to best practices.

AD-HOC STAFF

The Commission only organized crash training for its ad-hoc staff consisting of Ward Returning Officers, Supervisory Presiding Officers, Presiding Officers, and Poll Clerks barely 3 days to the scheduled election. Without even delving into the issue of the partisanship of the recruited ad-hoc staff, the crash training provided for the ad-hoc staff will affect their output negatively.

CONCLUSION

For now, this is the much to say as we await the fulfillment of all righteousness by the Electoral Commission. The coming days post declaration and swearing in/inauguration of those who would emerge from the sham election to be conducted today will be interesting.

The Government was just in a haste to conduct anyhow election so they would be able to access allocations due to the Local Government Areas from the federation account. Nevertheless, we are waiting for them at the other end; already Accord has instituted a lawsuit at the Federal High Court to restrain the Federal Government from releasing allocation to the Local Government Areas of Enugu State on the basis of today’s election.

Thank you.

Signed:

Chief John Nwobodo
Chieftain of Accord & Chairmanship Candidate of Accord for Nkanu East LGA