As opposition parties condemned the staggered elections as announced on Tuesday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in its fresh election timetable, the commission has explained why it could not change the polls order.

Though, the INEC appreciated the fact that having a one-day elections would have saved it of the much needed fund, logistics, time and personnel, as being canvassed by the opponents of the staggered elections, but that it was constrained by the electoral law.

Opposition parties which said the commission had done well by not waiting perpetually for the National Assembly to pass the law before embarking on certain activities that have little or no bearing with when the law is passed, insisted that the staggered elections and the departure from the bottom-top arrangement detracted from whatever intention for credible elections Professor Attahiru Jega might be planning for.

Press secretary to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu explained that INEC was handicapped in the choice of the order of elections because it was provided for in the Electoral Act 2010 and the commission could not do otherwise. Said he: “We know of complaints and argument from some quarters but it is not our fault. Everything we do is as provided for in the Act and the Constitution. You will see that each activity in the timetable as scheduled is backed by law and the chairman was quoting the relevant sections that guided our action.

“We can’t go out of our way to do anything that is illegal, everything we do is as contained in the extant electoral law,” he stressed. However, the political parties felt that part of the amendments INEC should have proposed to the National Assembly should have been to change the order of elections to start from lowest office to the highest as done in previous election. Secretary General of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Willy Ezugwu said with the new timetable nothing had changed other than the timing, warning that the NASS members might end up being a clog in the wheel of credible elections in the country.

He explained that the need to change the order of elections which had potential for bandwagon effect had been over emphasized and that the opposition parties had thought that the fresh amendments to the Electoral Act provided opportunity for the change. “So what are we saying, it’s the same game plan, but God won’t let them succeed.
Leading a pack of 16 parties on a solidarity visit to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) National Secretariat, Chief Maxi Okwu, the National Chairman of Citizens Popular Party (CPP) told Daily Sun in an interview that it was not good to have top-bottom elections, alleging that the lawmakers did it so for their own interest.

He explained that Nigeria usually had elections from the least offices and peaked at the highest office in the land so as to sustain the excitement. “But now they have coerced the INEC to take their course. What that means is a big challenge to the opposition parties and that is one of the reasons why we have come to confer with the ANPP leadership because power must change hands in 2011,” National Publicity of ANPP, Emmanuel Eneukwu said the band wagon effect of the arrangement was what the ANPP has been citing as possible consequence and that “we have said it over time that these election be held same day.

“If we have all the election same day, it will minimize rigging and whichever one comes first will no longer matter because whether the president or the governorship, all the elections will be in one day and as such there won’t any bandwagon effect as being feared. Eneuwku stated that the National Chairman of his party, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu made this position known to the lawmakers when he gave a position paper at the public hearing on the Electoral Act amendment, adding “but since they have refused to listen, we will all go into the election, but they will be shocked.”
In his own reaction, National Chairman of the Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwayanwu, whose party had earlier threatened to sue the INEC and NASS over the order of the election, expressed disappointment at the new timetable provision for elections.

He explained that his party was still studying the situation to know the next line of action because the Act was yet to be passed and his party would not like to beat the gun.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/nov/25/national-25-11-2010-001.htm