This brief piece is in defense of the new but now very popular cliche “inconclusive election” by INEC.

Prior to nomination and appointment of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as the INEC Chairman, the phrase “inconclusive election” was not a regularly used narrative in Nigeria’s election terrain. As such, many Nigerians, especially those who support PDP, have not only voiced their opposition to the new trend but have also condemned it entirely, claiming that it’s a strategy used by INEC to favour the APC-led federal government.

Having taken a look at our past elections and different flaws that came with them, and compared to what the current INEC is doing by declaring some elections inconclusive, I have come to agree that the present INEC is doing our democracy a great service by declaring some elections inconclusive.

In all elections declared inconclusive by the present INEC, there were justifiable reasons for such position. These reasons included but not limited to:
1. Ballot box snatching
2. Use of fake ballot papers or massive thumb-printing of ballot papers
3. Violent disruptions by political rivals resulting in destruction of properties and life
4. Killing and maiming of electorates
5. Failure to conclude voting before darkness set in thereby disenfranchising some electorates
6. Compromised electoral officials
7. Other logistics problems

We all know that the above listed reasons are common occurrence in Nigeria’s elections and we have always had to contend with them since 1999. Records exist where many polling units could not participate in an election but election results were declared nonetheless; despite that many electorates were disenfranchised! There are records of how election results were written in the sitting room of some politicians, yet such results were announced as a reflection of the electorates’ wish! Surely, these two scenarios should have caused the elections to be cancelled or declared inconclusive.

What used to happen was that where some of the above were witnessed, the party with the upper hand, in connivance with INEC, had always been declared winner through doctored result! Is this what we prefer to having an election declared inconclusive with a view to remedying whatever anomaly was recorded?

The result of Imo North senatorial election re-run of yesterday shows that APC had 48,000+ votes to PDP’s 40,000+ votes and about 15,000 registered voters yet to cast their ballot. In the old order, either of the two leading parties, in connivance with INEC, will have just shared the remaining uncast ballots as they deem fit, and a result is declared in favor of the party with highest connection. But because the current INEC (and by extension the FG) is determined to make people’s choice count, the election was declared inconclusive because of shooting between supporters of PDP and APC. To me, that was the only sensible thing to do by INEC. The rescheduled election will afford the two parties checkmate any nefarious activities that may be in the plan of the other party. That way, rigging is significantly reduced if not eliminated.

The concept of declaring election “inconclusive” is also capable of frustrating election riggers, trouble makers, and of course their sponsors as they will sooner or later realize that creating chaos in the hope of benefiting from such act will no longer be guaranteed.

So folks, let us embrace the new notion of “inconclusive election” for the purpose of deepening the quality of our election and democracy.

Lalasticlala Seun Mynd44, do you guys think it's worth fp?

You are a disgrace if I should speak. I can't imagine how you will turn a blind eye while the country sinks. I await when buhari will be kicked out of office in 2019 and if he dares retaliate, you passingshop or any supporter of this regime should say goodbye to NIGERIA for good!

So many mÔrons running loose on NL. Elections been inconclusive is now what you people want Nigerians to accept now ehn? How do you people even think?
So you really feel the area at Imo state rerun that was declared as conclusive didn't have any incidences of violence, or intimidation or electoral malpractices?
If this is what we have become as a people...so blind to the truth because of partisan affiliations, then I sincerely weep for this country!

2sexynet:
You are a disgrace if I should speak. I can't imagine how you will turn a blind eye while the country sinks. I await when buhari will be kicked out of office in 2019 and if he dares retaliate, you passingshop or any supporter of this regime should say goodbye to NIGERIA for good!

What on earth is wrong with you for crying out loud?

You basically ignored the opinion as posted and proceeded to regurgitate your usual gibberish

If you have no meaningful contribution to the topic then get stepping

2sexynet:
You are a disgrace if I should speak. I can't imagine how you will turn a blind eye while the country sinks. I await when buhari will be kicked out of office in 2019 and if he dares retaliate, you passingshop or any supporter of this regime should say goodbye to NIGERIA for good!

You're noticed.

Next?

bishopkay:
So many mÔrons running loose on NL. Elections been inconclusive is now what you people want Nigerians to accept now ehn? How do you people even think?
So you really feel the area at Imo state rerun that was declared as conclusive didn't have any incidences of violence, or intimidation or electoral malpractices?
If this is what we have become as a people...so blind to the truth because of partisan affiliations, then I sincerely weep for this country!

What's your point?

Please enumerate them without betraying your emotions.

@OP
I don't think you can spin inconclusive elections in any positive light since it seems to be a trend rather than anomalies.

Inconclusive elections simply points to Prof Yakubu's below par performance as far as elections are concerned.

The problems you listed are known so why aren't they mitigating against them since it's unfortunately reoccurring across the country?

It's even more annoying that they are happening when finance is somewhat lean with a great need for efficiency savings whilst being effective in processes and all.

He needs to Up his game!!!

jaybee3:
@OP
I don't think you can spin inconclusive elections in any positive light since it seems to be a trend rather than anomalies.

Inconclusive elections simply points to Prof Yakubu below par performance as far as elections are concerned.

The problems you listed are known so why aren't they mitigating against them since it's reoccurring across the country?
It's even more annoying that they are happening when finance is somewhat lean and there is a great need for efficiency whilst being effective in processes and all.

He needs to Up his game!!!

Successfully concluding an election is not solely dependent on INEC.

The security outfits have more and bigger role to play than INEC.

The question is, have we always experienced the flaws I listed above? The answer is "yes". And have results always been declared when they occurred? Again, yes. And lastly, should those elections have been declared "conclusive" with all the flaws? The answer to me should be "No".

jaybee3:


What on earth is wrong with you for crying out loud?

You basically ignored the opinion as posted and proceeded to regurgitate your usual gibberish

If you have no meaningful contribution to the topic then get stepping

Bro, the country isn't looking good and you know it. We had better start telling ourselves the cold hard truth. Anything to resist the removal of Buhari come 2019 would be greeted with a revolution to end this country once and for all.

Did you read his reply regarding the torture of Tompolo's father? No matter the crime of Tompolo, the old man shouldn't be subjected to such an undesirable treatment. We are men and we should imagine ourselves at old age in the shoes of Tompolo's father.

Now, look at what he wants us to accept as norm? Just look at the topic of his thread. With all due respect, I too supported Buhari but it does not give me the right to neglect the sufferings of others just because I am not affected or because I am privileged.

Bro, even if my blood brother was the president of this country, at this stage, I will tell him to his face that he is messing up and that is what every true citizens must uphold!

OP, you have some valid points for taking your stand.

Hitherto, we've hardly witnessed any major elections being declared as INCONCLUSIIVE ; maybe that was because the ruling party at the time perfected all manner of electoral aberrations and malpractices plus they had all the instruments of state . Many of us, before we kinda started subtly supporting the PDP, were deeply worried about the crimes that were going during elections at the time. But this is why many of us are now getting troubled at the recent run of elections declared inconclusive by the APC. .....

Nigeria isn't a sane society at the moment. ....far from it. As much as we want the elections to be free and fair we should be troubled with trend brother. Let's take Rivers state for instance, we've done rerun and it was declared inconclusive. Now we are going for another round. It's becoming too stressful, full of tension and even boring. We've got other things to do with our times.

Many of us are getting worried for 2019. If the APC can't summarise and conclude elections for a few states or local government, how then will it handle the 2019 elections? Will it be able to manage the huge logistics that it will require in 2019? Won't the INEC need one full year to conduct that general elections? These are very legitimate concerns.

DropShot:

Successfully concluding an election is not solely dependent on INEC.

The security outfits have more and bigger role to play than INEC.

The question is, have we always experienced the flaws I listed above? The answer is "yes". And have results always been declared when they occurred? Again, yes. And lastly, should those elections have been declared "conclusive" with all the flaws? The answer to me should be "No".

You are simply saying it's okay to be mediocre albeit with a slight improvement in final process of the electoral end-to-end process

If the challenges are historical then they ought to have mitigated against them simplez

What a horrible write-up. This is an insult to us. We should now embrace inconclusive elections abi? This is how they said we should embrace hardship as being a good thing for us

Tufiakwa! Until we learn to stand up for our rights our politicians will keep paying hungry people to support them on social media.

I have lost faith in the youths of this generation, I am ashamed of passingshots alias dropshots. omenka would never behave this bad

passingshots just lost my respect............




woe unto thee that moves this false story to the front-page

2sexynet:
Bro, the country isn't looking good and you know it. We had better start telling ourselves the cold hard truth. Anything to resist the removal of Buhari come 2019 would be greeted with a revolution to end this country once and for all.

Did you read his reply regarding the torture of Tompolo's father? No matter the crime of Tompolo, the old man shouldn't be subjected to such an undesirable treatment. We are men and we should imagine ourselves at old age in the shoes of Tompolo's father.

Now, look at what he wants us to accept as norm? Just look at the topic of his thread. With all due respect, I too supported Buhari but it does not give me the right to neglect the sufferings of others just because I am not affected or because I am privileged.

Bro, even if my blood brother was the president of this country, at this stage, I will tell him to his face that he is messing up and that is what every true citizens must uphold!

Ain't nobody denying the simple fact that Nigeria is currently undergoing tough economic realities.
You can argue it was always going to happen since we simply didn't save for rainy days.

It's simply idiotic to attribute the current economic problems to the current leadership when it's obvious our past leaders lack foresight

Also, i absolutely do not support law enforcement officers taking revenge on helpless members of Tompolo's family just because they can. However, how far are we sure that's about the authenticity of his claims when propaganda seems to be the order of the day?

jaybee3:


You are simply saying it's okay to be mediocre albeit with a slight improvement in final process of the electoral end-to-end process

If the challenges are historical then they ought to have mitigated against them simplez

The challenges are very unlikely to go away in the next ten years. It's even wrong the way our elections are scheduled considering the population size and logistics required to meet up with requirement. It's very unlikely that an election (especially the general election) can start and conclude in one day, yet we expect that to be the case without adequate provision.

My position is, given a situation where results are written and compare that to having an election declared inconclusive, I will prefer the later.

How can inefficiency be termed success? The rate at which we are producing educated illiterates in this Mr Daft presidency is alarming

Nonsense piece

DropShot:

The challenges are very unlikely to go away in the next ten years. It's even wrong the way our elections are scheduled considering the population size and logistics required to meet up with requirement. It's very unlikely that an election (especially the general election) can start and conclude in one day, yet we expect that to be the case without adequate provision.

My position is, given a situation where results are written and compare that to having an election declared inconclusive, I will prefer the later.

How about disenfranchising voters from troubled spots to serve as a deterrent to would be riggers?
How about they embrace electronic voting?

We can't keep doing the same things and expect different results

dearpreye:
OP, you have some valid points for taking your stand.

Hitherto, we've hardly witnessed any major elections being declared as INCONCLUSIIVE ; maybe that was because the ruling party at the time perfected all manner of electoral aberrations and malpractices plus they had all the instruments of state . Many of us, before we kinda started subtly supporting the PDP, were deeply worried about the crimes that were going during elections at the time. But this is why many of us are now getting troubled at the recent run of elections declared inconclusive by the APC. .....

Nigeria isn't a sane society at the moment. ....far from it. As much as we want the elections to be free and fair we should be troubled with trend brother. Let's take Rivers state for instance, we've done rerun and it was declared inconclusive. Now we are going for another round. It's becoming too stressful, full of tension and even boring. We've got other things to do with our times.

Many of us are getting worried for 2019. If the APC can't summarise and conclude elections for a few states or local government, how then will it handle the 2019 elections? Will it be able to manage the huge logistics that it will require in 2019? Won't the INEC need one full year to conduct that general elections? These are very legitimate concerns.

Valid concerns up there.

I won't pretend that INEC has really lived up to expectations. But as I said in response to another post, our security institutions and electorates have bigger role to play in helping INEC conclude any election successfully.

Having said that, Nigeria should start looking at staggered elections instead of having a general election throughout the country in one single day knowing fully well we lack the resources to give us a credible one.

But in the absence of that, I will always welcome an election declared inconclusive for obvious flaws and repeated twice or more; than support releasing mere figures that don't represent the people's wish.

Inconclusive elections only came when Amina Zakari was made INEC chairman.

Amina Zakari is incidentally the daughter of Buhari's sister.

How can a man name his own niece as an umpire in an event he's partaking in?


If they can’t hold elections in relatively peaceful states, how come the last admin were able to hold election in supposedly Boko Haram stronghold of the NE without problems?

Free and fair elections ended with Dr Jonathan’s administration.

jaybee3:


How about disenfranchising voters from troubled spots to serve as a deterrent to would be riggers?
How about they embrace electronic voting?

We can't keep doing the same things and expect different results

To me, disenfranchising all voters from a troubled region because of action of a handful of political thugs will throw up some legal issue. The constitution wont support that.

Embracing electronic voting, as has been proved recently, will always contribute to not concluding an election as scheduled. Many elections will run into the next day.

In my opinion, holding general election region-wise will solve most of our problems if not all.

Inconclusive elections as the norm? Never! It should actually be rightly viewed as an anomaly in our nation!


It is actually a blatant form of "political immaturity" and points to an acute failure on the parts of both INEC, our security forces, the voters and our politicians to lend credence to our democracy!


STEP UP!

BlackSeptember:
How can inefficiency be termed success? The rate at which we are producing educated illiterates in this Mr Daft presidency is alarming

So, declaring doctored election results is success?

You guys think you're capable of proper reasoning but you're not.

funlord:



Inconclusive elections as the norm? Never! It should actually be rightly viewed as an anomaly in our nation!


It is actually a blatant form of "political immaturity" and points to an acute failure on the parts of both INEC, our security forces, the voters and our politicians to lend credence to our democracy!


STEP UP!

please talk sense to that boy, I am really vexed right now

funlord:



Inconclusive elections as the norm? Never! It should actually be rightly viewed as an anomaly in our nation!


It is actually a blatant form of "political immaturity" and points to an acute failure on the parts of both INEC, our security forces, the voters and our politicians to lend credence to our democracy!


STEP UP!

Given our present situation of not having the resources to successfully conclude elections without flaws; and the previous norm of having results declared where no elections held, declaring election inconclusive and repeating it is better.

DropShot:

Valid concerns up there.

I won't pretend that INEC has really lived up to expectations. But as I said in response to another post, our security institutions and electorates have bigger role to play in helping INEC conclude any election successfully.

Having said that, Nigeria should start looking at staggered elections instead of having a general election throughout the country in one single day knowing fully well we lack the resources to give us a credible one.

But in the absence of that, I will always welcome an election declared inconclusive for obvious flaws and repeated twice or more; than support releasing mere figures that don't represent the people's wish.

So how was GEJ's INEC able to handle the last elections and had them concluded within days? I thought we now have saints occupying all the key instruments of states! Or did Jega deliberately frustrated the ambition of GEJ? I'm just getting shocked by the day.

Staggered elections? You've forgotten you're not dealing with a sane country. Such elections will only increase rigging, tension and all manner of evils.

Almost all the elections conducted by PMB's INEC have been declared inconclusive. This is a bad trend. Rather than accept it, even Nigerian should be deeply worried.

tizblink:
What is this?

The topic has already betrayed the OP

We should be discussing on how we gonna stop this trend. Make the process better and here we are.

The only solution as of NOW is declaring doctored results as previously done under PDP.

The other solutions cannot be immediate.

Think!

DropShot:

To me, disenfranchising all voters from a troubled region because of action of a handful of political thugs will throw up some legal issue. The constitution wont support that.

Embracing electronic voting, as has been proved recently, will always contribute to not concluding an election as scheduled. Many elections will run into the next day.

In my opinion, holding general election region-wise will solve most of our problems if not all.

I know it isn't currently allowed in the constitution but he (Prof Yakubu) ought to be lobbying the legislooters to change the freaking laws to reflect the country's current economic situation. We simply can't afford more bloodshed and stretched public services because of few cancelled elections at certain wards or LG's.

Nothing wrong with allowing result of an election with participation of at least 70%
So the 70% will be the computed baseline when they aggregate up to council, LGA or State level.

It can even be based on hard numbers (Total votes against expected participation derived from registered voters and PVC collection) rather than % based on ward sizes


Bottom line is, we have to try different things to move this country forward

dearpreye:


So how was GEJ's INEC able to handle the last elections and had them concluded within days? I thought we now have saints occupying all the key instruments of states! Or did Jega deliberately frustrated the ambition of GEJ? I'm just getting shocked by the day.

Staggered elections? You've forgotten you're not dealing with a sane country. Such elections will only increase rigging, tension and all manner of evils.

Almost all the elections conducted by PMB's INEC have been declared inconclusive. This is a bad trend. Rather than accept it, even Nigerian should be deeply worried.

As I told you b4, many elections in PDP's sixteen years were doctored. They were not in the true sense of the word concluded. Results of many of them were written in sitting room of politicians.

I don't think staggered elections will perform worse than we have now.

If I may ask, what suggestions would you give to INEC where there are flaws during elections, other than just writing/doctoring result?