Everybody seem to agree that the election was free, minimal violence if any at all as the security agencies actually ensured killing any intransigent house fly with a sledge hammer. However, we have strident attacks of the election from three main quarters: 1. major and hopeful candidates have alleged that the election was not free. 2. Some parties have also alleged deliberate manipulation of the process by the electoral umpire. 3. Many of the electorate have been disenfrachised both in areas where election actually took place and in others where elections did not hold. Two options have emerged on the way forward: 1. INEC, APGA and some interest want only a supplementary election while APC, LP, PDP candidate and some other interest want total cancellation of the election. Questions are: 1. Does INEC have the legal power to cancel an inconclusive election 2. Can a supplementary election proposed by INEC capable of addressing the issue of disenfranchisement in areas where election has been held and where elections have not been held 3. Can the election result be credible with a supplementary election as proposed by INEC without a redress for those disenfranchised in areas where election actually took place. 4. For INEC to have admitted fraud by some of her officials does she still have both legal and moral ground to continue such election without taking measures that will disassociate the commission from the infamous acts of few of her officials? The position of the law is that only the court can annul the result declared by INEC but where the election is not conclusive we cannot say a result has been declared. Again, people who have been disenfranchised by INEC’s faulty register must be accommodated within the framework of a supplementary election which is meant for areas where election has not been held. If this cannot be done and since INEC did cancel election in some areas then why not go the whole hug to cancel the entire election. If all parties rely on the votes of the electorate then no one should fear whether the election is conducted a hundred times. INEC must also arrange prosecute their staff culpable in the current crisis while the NPF should also immediately prosecute the fake observers they claimed to have intercepted in Imo State if their report is true.
↧