The result of FCT Local Government Elections confirms what many Nigerians know and refuse to accept, that the trouble with Nigeria is not a structural but a cultural problem. If the FCT had an Independent State Electoral Commission, APC would have won the six LGAs in Abuja. I salute INEC for acting as a fair umpire in that election.

HOWEVER, the FCT election raised some concerns that potentially could mar the 2023 election. As one who had watched with keen interest and engaged with INEC officially on its praiseworthy effort to use technology to improve elections, the observations are disturbing.

After the Anambra elections and the complaints raised about the BVAS, I had expected the FCT election to be a walk in the park for INEC. I believe other close watchers, like me, were perturbed with YIAGA’s Watching The Vote report. YIAGA, an election monitoring non-governmental organisation, made disturbing observations about the FCT LGA. I will reproduce some of the observations and my comments.

First, YIAGA observed late deployment of election materials & delayed commencement of polls and reported that no polling officials had arrived in some of the polling units visited at 9:30 am. Polling officials encountered difficulty in locating some newly created polling units. They also reported the late arrival of police officers at the Registration Area Centers.

The late deployment and commencement are worrisome. INEC needs to explain why such logistical issues could not be controlled in a small election like the FCT LGA election? INEC should identify and hold people responsible and call out any agency that did not live up to expectations.
Second, YIAGA reported technological glitches with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). YIAGA further observed that the BVAS machine was deployed across all the polling units visited. However, the usage of the BVAS was fraught with challenges, ranging from the wrong configuration of BVAS to respective polling units, BVAS failing to accredit voters, delays in RATECHs response to BVAS complaints in some polling units as well as delays in authenticating voters within processing time.

The BVAS glitches are embarrassing, considering INECs promise to fix the glitches observed in Anambra after the Anambra election. I requested INEC, at a public forum, to conduct an inquiry into what happened in Anambra with the BVAS and make the same public to engender public confidence in the technology. If a metropolitan area like FCT can encounter these issues, what would happen during the 2023 election in 170,000 poll units across remote regions of the country? INEC has Ekiti and Osun as test runs to renew our confidence in its capabilities.

Third, Yiaga Africa reported disenfranchisement of voters due to missing names on the voter register deployed to the polling unit. In the centres where the disenfranchisement occurred, the voters were holders of valid Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) assigned to those polling units. INEC’s online voter verification portal also verified their registration status for such voters. Upon further investigation by Yiaga Africa, we discovered that INEC allocated voters to new polling units without informing voters of the changes to their polling units. The allocation of voters to new poll units created confusion and prevented some voters from casting their ballot.

Disenfranchisement of voters at a national scale would cause a severe uproar, especially in a close election. INEC should notify all voters via text messages of the number of their poll unit and location. INEC can use a ussd code to request-response and generate a compliance report. A permanent code to text a request for a PU location from the registered phone number would make it easy for an automated response on the PU location.

Fourth, the functionality of the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal was an issue. Yiaga Africa noted that the first polling unit result was uploaded at 3:45 pm (1:30 mins after the close of voting) on election day and observed delays in uploading results on the platform.

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YIAGA reported that Chairmanship results from only 1,757 of 2,229 polling units were uploaded on the portal at 2:30 pm on Sunday, Feb 13, 2022. YIAGA also observed that at the same time, results from 2,065 polling units out of 2,229 polling units of the councillorship election was uploaded on the portal. A discrepancy that INEC should explain to the public.

INEC’s Election Result Viewing Portal is one innovation that has helped buoy public confidence in the electoral process. INEC should guard and sustain it. It is essential that INEC publicises the timeframes for uploading results and holds officers accountable for any breach. If result upload is not in stipulated timeframes across the country on a national election day, it may raise questions about the integrity of the election.

INEC should, as a matter of urgency, provide explanations on these and other issues raised by YIAGA and other election monitors.

The reported failures at a municipal election are a cause for alarm. INEC owes us a duty to renew trust in its capabilities and restore confidence in its role as an impartial umpire.