True talk, this isn't Obasanjo's Land to to destroy, or IBBs land, Nigeria belongs to the Civilians

How can we as Citizens STOP RIGGING?

We have about 150million NIGERIANS! Out of whc the Politicians & Political THUGS are not upto 2% of this vast population.

Can we rightly say that these little percentage can effectively BULLY the bulk of Nigerians through RIGGING this time around and get away with it?

Do you know that the international community, INEC, Observers, etc, cannot eradicate Electoral Rigging?

What can we do as Nigerians who have patiently left our homes, come out to cast our votes, do to make sure that the figures published are the actual figures?

Wont you be shocked when the collated figures exceeds the 60million of registered voters?

It's about time we took this RIGGING business heads-on!

Let's not leave it for "THEM".

It's our Future;
It's the future of our children;

It is upto US (you & I) to find a solution to RIGGING monsters, starting with this April 2007 elections.

What do you feel?

My friend the question is not "HOW" but "WHEN"

@Tonyblu,

Thanks for this important question.

I guess we will benefit when we proactively look for ways to solve our problems instead of complaining all the time and doing nothing.

Now, I think Nigerians can expose rigging not necessarily stop it since the rigging is usually done after the elections before the results are released.

I also believe that the results of any election are announced right there at the polling station after the elections with the representatives of the candidates as witnesses.

If this is so then all we need do is setup a centralized database (will require getting a lot of information from INEC especially the list of polling stations and candidates for each polling station) and get a volunteer or a respresentive that will return (submit the results as announced in each polling station).

If the results are continually fed into the database, people will see the results in real time as the elections are taking place and with this, the world can know the result even before INEC announces it and INEC's results will only be different if they have taken time to rig or falsify the results.

I believe this is similar to what other nations do during elections that makes it possible for the world to know the outcome even before the electoral body saddled with the responsibility of conducting elections come out with the official figure.

This is not only possible but doable and such a project must be devoid of any political bias for it to make sense.

Tonyblu:

Hi Afam,

On the issue of exposing RIGGING, what can be done to checkmate their activities?

That's a tough one unless you get decent people to run INEC.

Tonyblu:

Is INEC reliable?

I won't bet a single kobo on this one, hence the need to have an independent body that can provide the same information.

Asking for the polling stations and the list of candidates to me is not an issue as the information should ordinarily be in the public domain.

Tonyblu:

The aspects u highlited, how can they be practicalized?

A database driven web application with people that are ready to sacrifice their time (or get paid for it) in going to the polling station and objectively returning the results declared at the polling stations.

The results will be fed into the database and computed effortlessly.

Basically, this is what NPC did with the census only that many do not trust them with the results and this is why it would have made sense for the Lagos state government to have released its own results since they counted the same thing that the NPC counted in Lagos instead of making sensational statements about rejections and nothing concrete on exposing the falsification (if any).

A lot of people have access to emails these days and having thousands of people return via email or calls the declared/announced results in all the polling stations in Nigeria is not only doable but will put INEC in a position that it deserves to be put in with the attendant checks and balances.

Afam:

A lot of people have access to emails these days and having thousands of people return via email or calls the declared/announced results in all the polling stations in Nigeria is not only doable but will put INEC in a position that it deserves to be put in with the attendant checks and balances.

How do we get such an independent body on ground?
Are there any such establishments already on ground in Naija?
The Govt of d day will definitely fight such a set-up!

The Officers at the polling booths will have to release the Polls figures immediately they are counted/computed. And INEC will have to allow for CREDIBLE Independent Observers to pick the figures.

Has this idea/suggestion been made PUBLIC or discussed with any of the other political parties as possible way of ensuring Rig-free April 2007 polls?

What is the current legislation on issues of this nature?

Every VOTER has to be observant and vigilant to "protect" the Ballot-box.

What of places where thugs come and cart away d Ballot boxes?
And reported cases where the police aided money exchange at polling centres?
Aren't all these methods of rigging?

I spotted this while posting this reply:
http://www.inecnigeria.org/newsview.php?newsid=224




_{It can be done.}

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Where there is a will there is usually a way.

Unfortunately, those who may be thinking in the line of doing something possible to make things work keep themselves busy with the blame game and pointing of fingers which ultimately amount to nothing.

Ofcourse, anyone that plans to rig the election will not want such a thing to work but we have the media that are allowed to move around on election day.

This is not one, two or three people can make happen, it is not going to be easy to do but for sure it is doable and only those that believe it can be done can really work towards this.

The INEC link is cool on paper but with the government funding it and the simple fact that there may not be a coordination of these results outside the LGA or State level, the final results can easily be manipulated if they wanted to do so.

Thanks for your time.

I will recommend to use people like Adedibu as the scape goat.

He should be punished brutally; and I bet you, it will send a message to others with the same intention.

It is all about empowering and enforcing Nigerian constitution.

You can come up with different types of strategies to prevent rigging in Nigeria, but I can guarantee you that nothing will work till we start to empower and enforce our constitution; and that is also when Nigeria as a nation will become a civilized country.

This is also one of the reasons why I think Nigeria deserves a tough, experienced and well respected individual as the next president.

At this point in time, this country doesn't need a daddy's boy or a boy scout.

We need a topnotch in general, but it is up to the citizens of Nigeria.

The government has a major role to play in the prevention of rigging and not the hungry poor souls.

My other question is:

Have we Nigerian woken up to the manipulations and tricks of these people?
Have we sat down and asked ourselves what these people have got to offer?

Does the Next man on the street know that "the Government" is actually HIS; that he has a RIGHT to SAY who shld be at the leadership, or who shouldn't.

YES, it's called EMPOWERMENT!

Casting BLAMES HAS never been a solution to any problem.

For now, the Media may provide a seemingly temporary solution; by playing their objective role, like it's being done in other places; by being the MOUTH-PIECE of the people.

The Media can empower the people with accurate, factual reasons that they have the POWER over these politicians and not the other way around.

Information, nay, PROPERLY PACKAGED PEOPLE ORIENTED INFORMATION is key for this empowerment!

You have spoken well!

I really wish we could stop rigging!However many of our political elite are not honorable, not good losers and primarily self-centered as it's all about their larger than life egos.Also when is money politics gonna stop?It's gonna be a while for rigging, voter fraud, money politics etc to end. See the just released nonsense census figures and just concluded voter registration. Pathetic and debased!I shake my head in wonder as usual ,always-when it's it gonna end?

It seems this issue is being looked into by many people these days.

A former presidential aspirant was in my office and the same issue came up and after discussing the doability of this especially as regards every single election result from every single polling station (he says we have 120,000 of them) and collating same, it became clear that funding may be a problem.

Why? We assumed a N5,000.00 fee for media representatives (since individuals may never get a copy of any results as verbal/oral information may not stand the test of time) and that means you are looking at N600,000,000.00 and a possible N800,000,000.00 or N1B.

Will the government foot this bill? Very unlikely since the government may be interested in rigging the election in the first place.

As stated before, only the government can stop rigging, we can only expose it by making available results as they come out without waiting for INEC that may doctor the results during the collation process (when many must have gone home thinking that everything is ok).

It is very very possible for Nigerians to know the results as they come in in real time, maybe this alone may make the INEC think twice before it agrees to doctor the results.