*Its plot to rig the guber poll, PDP alleges
*IPAC calls for its postponement
By Ezeocha Nzeh
Stakes have been raised to a feverish pitch following the revelation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that there were about 86 polling units with no voter allocated to them.
The questions are: Who created the polling units? Which comes first – registered voters or polling units? Are such polling units created for the purpose of rigging elections? Could an agency saddled with voters registration and charged with assigning polling units to voters claim it discovered such by mere off-hand statement? Who did it? Was there punishments meted out against the officials that carried out such infamous act?
Since the INEC made the statement, political stakeholders all agreed that it was a design to rig the November 6the governorship election in Anambra State.
INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had last Friday, during an emergency meeting with leaders of political parties, ahead of the election, stated that 86 out of the 5,720 Polling Units in the state, have no voters assigned to such!
He promised however, that he would not deploy any of its personnel and electoral materials to these 86 toxic polling units.
This even as the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has called on INEC to postpone the governorship election in the state to allow for return of sanity.
Prof. Yakubu also disclosed that 894 polling units, representing 15.6 per cent of the total polling units in the state have between 1 and 49 voters, paving way for another set of unanswered questions.
Yakubu said: “Understandably, the voters have also been more circumspect in asking for a transfer to polling units. At the same time, the commission did not use its powers under Section 42 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) to allot voters to the new polling units to minimise the disruptions that may occur from such a decision.
“Consequently, out of the 5,720 polling units in Anambra State, 86; representing 1.5 per cent have no voters. For that reason, the commission will not be deploying personnel and materials to these polling units.
“Furthermore, 894 representing 15.6 per cent of the polling units have between 1 and 49 voters. The election will hold in these polling units.”
Reacting to the revelation, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the state, Chief Obidozie Nnadi, urged INEC to ensure adequate scrutiny of the commission’s result sheets, alleging that results could come from such fake polling units to favour a particular candidate.
Nnadi, who was full of praises for the commission’s identification of the polling units, regretted however that it was INEC that demarcated and created the “fake polling units”, even as he predicted of the commission’s staff of being capable of signing results that could came from such polling units, after compromising with election riggers.
Another stakeholder, Chief Chukwudi Nsianya, wondered how polling units could crop up without any voter, stressing that it amounted to an abracadabra and a prelude to electoral malpractice, which only the INEC can explain and must be made to explain.
“How can the INEC chairman say there are as many as 86 polling units without a single voter allocated to it. Who did it, how, when? I refuse to accept that it should be ended just like that. This is fraud already incorporated and if nothing happens as a follow up, I will conclude that our electoral system has damaged to a point of irreversible remedy”, he said.
While calling for the postponement of the poll, IPAC chairman, Chief Leonard Nzenwa, in his opening remarks at the meeting, expressed the Councils concerns over the revelation by INEC, saying that that members have expressed concerns and mixed feelings on the revelation, adding that, “political leaders will weigh in on this as we progress.
“I am also sure that mixed feelings will trail the Commissions information/announcement, but as core stakeholders in the political and electoral ecosystem we will guide our loins in preparation for the challenges ahead.”
“The Inter-Party Advisory Council, is not unmindful of the intense quibbling and vicissitudes occurring in the polity with the oncoming polls in Anambra posing greater challenge to the Commission, for which we have prevailed on the candidates to maintain the highest form of decorum and play by the rules , and to ensure that they reign in their supporters to conduct themselves responsibly and statesmanlike.
“In the week, unverified report across multiplicity of media had it that several thousands of ad-hoc staff recruited for the polls are declining to go to the state on account of the insecurity. We hope INEC will address this.
“Indeed, the 2021 Anambra gubernatorial poll has not only been adjudged as the most expensive by credible pollsters with billionaires in hard currency in participation. This equally was validated by the Commission few days ago when it said it has cost it huge financial and material investments.
“On the flip side, the journey to this election has been strewn with pallets of uncertainties, not that INEC had not prepared enough for it, nor the political parties ill-equipped, but that actions and inaction of non-state actors seem to be throwing spanners in the works, as wonton killings and destruction of property have continued unabated.
“These led to suggestion by some of us that the Anambra polls be postponed to allow for some level of sanity before the poll is conducted.
“Truth is that, people in Anambra are scared stiff and have been cowed to stay indoors for the greater part of the days in the last few months. You see this on their faces, you sense this in the air they breathe; you behold a fear-stricken population fighting to fend for themselves in the wave of brutal and conscienceless attacks on their lives and property.
“For a proper, ‘well-credentialed’ poll with compliments of acceptable electoral best practices to be held in an environment as this is most unlikely. We encouraged INEC to put their best leg forward in this regard.
He stated further that “with all that is taking place there, with the huge sums of money being moved about, with the state still figuring out how possible they can creatively tame the audacity of the so called ‘rascal aggressors’, those we do fear might not play their role are the people, the people might not vote.
“It follows, therefore, that the money may be there, the state may have its way, but to draw the people out to vote en-mass might not be easy.
“The people are torn between two forces: on one hand, is a force driven by credible and genuine motivation to sanitize the Anambra polity for peaceful polls to take place. On another other hand, is a band of non-state actors who are adept in guerrilla antics, which ultimately may lead to collateral damage in the face of major clash.
“It is acknowledgment of this disincentive which might usher high voter apathy that we are deeply concerned with”.
