ELECTION:INEC,HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
Before the Gubernatorial and states houses of assembly election held in Nigeria on the 14th of April 2007, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC)Prof. Maurice Iwu had assured Nigerian electorates that the 2007 elections unlike previous elections held in Nigeria will be free and fair.
He assured Nigerian electorates that INEC has put all neccessary logistics in place to ensure successful elections.The INEC chairman assured Nigerians that adequate security were in place for the election. He convinced some Nigerians that the decision by INEC to use an electronic register for the election was to prevent massive rigging during the election as was experienced in the in the 2003 elections.
Now we know better. It was all empty talk. The INEC chairman knows nothing of what he was talking about.
Contrary to the promises of the INEC chairman, the 2007 elections just like the 2003 general elections were anything but free and fair. The election held last Saturday was characterized by violence,late arrival of INEC officials and adhoc staffs with election materials at the polling station, insufficient electoral materials in some places, snatching of ballot boxes at gun point, stuffing of ballot boxes with ballot papers and poor organisation and co-ordination by INEC.
These were similar to the characteristics of the 2003 general elections. The massive rigging in last Saturday's election was made possible by the lack of counter measures by INEC. One wonders the role that INEC had expected the electronic voter's register to play.
Like the 2003 elections I didnot vote. This is because of the late arrival of INEC officials in my area and as we were queueing up to vote two gunmen in mobile police uniform came and took the ballot boxes away.
In four years we as Nigrians have learnt little or nothing from the mistakes of the past. I hope that INEC will look at the lapses in these elections in order to prevent a re-occurance in the next round of elections coming up in 2011.
He assured Nigerian electorates that INEC has put all neccessary logistics in place to ensure successful elections.The INEC chairman assured Nigerians that adequate security were in place for the election. He convinced some Nigerians that the decision by INEC to use an electronic register for the election was to prevent massive rigging during the election as was experienced in the in the 2003 elections.
Now we know better. It was all empty talk. The INEC chairman knows nothing of what he was talking about.
Contrary to the promises of the INEC chairman, the 2007 elections just like the 2003 general elections were anything but free and fair. The election held last Saturday was characterized by violence,late arrival of INEC officials and adhoc staffs with election materials at the polling station, insufficient electoral materials in some places, snatching of ballot boxes at gun point, stuffing of ballot boxes with ballot papers and poor organisation and co-ordination by INEC.
These were similar to the characteristics of the 2003 general elections. The massive rigging in last Saturday's election was made possible by the lack of counter measures by INEC. One wonders the role that INEC had expected the electronic voter's register to play.
Like the 2003 elections I didnot vote. This is because of the late arrival of INEC officials in my area and as we were queueing up to vote two gunmen in mobile police uniform came and took the ballot boxes away.
In four years we as Nigrians have learnt little or nothing from the mistakes of the past. I hope that INEC will look at the lapses in these elections in order to prevent a re-occurance in the next round of elections coming up in 2011.
posted by passyjango @ 1:28 PM
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