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Alleged 40% reduction of CPC votes and other issues
By Attahiru Jega Newsdiaryonline
Sat April23,2011
The
Presidential election has now come and gone. Let me start by
thanking all Nigerians for their continued enthusiasm,
commitment and support for the unfolding process of building a
strong democratic country, which is exemplified by the
successful completion of the National Assembly and Presidential
elections. There have been several assessments of the conduct of
the Presidential election, by both domestic and international
observers most of which indicate that the election was not only
a marked improvement on the National Assembly polls, but also
met the highest global standards for free and fair elections.
In spite of these positive assessments, some
people have raised issues about the results declared by the
Commission. More seriously, it has been suggested by some
politicians that the outbreak of violence in some parts of the
country is somehow associated with those results. In many
instances, the violence has been unjustifiably targeted at INEC,
particularly young National Youth Service Corps members who are
diligently discharging their patriotic duty to the nation. It is
clear to us that these young men and women are being targeted to
scare them away from continuing the honourable and excellent
work they have been doing during these elections. Apart from the
Corps members, INEC staff, offices and materials have also been
attacked.
We as a Commission condemn the violence
without reservation. It is unnecessary, unwarranted and totally
unacceptable. In a democratic system, political grievances,
however serious they may be, should be resolved through formal
legal processes, rather than through recourse to destroying
property and killing and maiming innocent people.
Many grievances have been voiced and
allegations made against INEC’s conduct and collation of results
of the Presidential election. I want to put these accusations to
rest. For instance, it has been alleged by the Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) that the Excel sheets used in collating
results from Katsina and Kano States were designed to reduce its
votes by as much as 40%. This allegation is totally unfounded.
The collation process at the State level is a
manual process, requiring State Collation Officers to enter
results from Local Government Collation Centres into Form EC.8D
by hand. However, for administrative purposes, we designed an
Excel sheet to enable us to simultaneously enter the results as
they are announced by the Local Government Collation Officers.
The rationale behind this is twofold. First, we wanted a means
of cross-checking the entries and computations done manually on
Form EC.8D for accuracy. Second, we wanted a means of
authenticating the results on Form EC.8D when they are finally
delivered at the National Collation Centre in Abuja.
Consequently, after collation in the State, the Excel sheet,
which replicates the Form EC.8D was meant to be printed,
cross-checked and signed by the State Collation Officer and
emailed securely and directly to the Chairman of INEC, who was
the Returning Officer for the Presidential election. Thus, I
must emphasize that the Excel sheet was only an aid to check
accuracy and authenticity of the manually collated results. It
was not a substitute for Form EC.8D which was filled manually
and signed by the State Collation Officer and Party Agents
present at the State Collation Centres, and which is the legally
admissible results for return.
The Excel sheet for each State was prepared
here in Abuja. The formulae were written into the sheets and
locked with a password. This was to ensure that only figures
could be entered during State collation. The necessary
calculations, for instance, totals and percentages were then
automatically generated by the sheets.
What happened in Kano and Katsina States was that in
writing the Excel formulae errors were made in the number of
Local Governments in those States. Consequently, the totals were
generally less than what was manually entered in Form EC.8D
because the Excel formula was not summing results for all the
LGAs in the sheets. Expectedly, the fault was immediately
detected by cross-checking the formulae in the sheets. Our staff
in the States brought this to the attention of the Headquarters
and the formulae were immediately corrected. The obvious
evidence that this correction was made was that the figures in
Form EC.8D, which was duly signed by Party Agents of CPC in both
States, corresponded to our Excel sheets during the national
collation in Abuja. I should say that before this error was
corrected, it affected the scores of all the Parties in the
excluded Local Government Areas, not the CPC’s alone.
Prior to the allegation about the Excel
Sheets, the CPC had also alleged that there was massive
thumb-printing and ballot box stuffing in Enugu State. They
demanded that INEC suspend the collation of the Presidential
Results and “fly-in” the ballot boxes from Enugu for them to
demonstrate that this was the case. It is clearly impracticable
to do this, for it could open a deluge of requests which
conceivably could involve the ballot papers used in the 119,973
Polling Units across the country. Moreover, the Form EC.8D from
Enugu State was duly signed by the CPC Agent. Let me reassure
all concerned that we are willing to ensure that all allegations
of misconduct are properly investigated. But there are issues
beyond our remit, which can only be addressed by the Electoral
Tribunals. For instance, finding identical thumbprints is a
complex forensic process which INEC is not in a position to
conduct.
It should not be seen that we are taking
issues with one party. I have addressed these because they seem
to be the most prominent allegations against the Commission. I
wish to assure all Nigerians, particularly political parties and
candidates in these elections, that INEC remains committed to
creating a level playing field for all and to managing this
process impartially, transparently and with integrity.
In the past few days, the Commission in
conjunction with security agencies, NYSC and political parties
has carefully been assessing the feasibility of holding the
upcoming April 26th elections in the States most
affected by the violence. The assessment shows that there is
marked improvement in security in some of the States for the
elections to hold. However, in others, specifically Kaduna and
Bauchi States, the security situation remains a source of
concern. Consequently, the Commission is constrained to postpone
the April 26th elections in the two States in
accordance with Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as
amended) from April 26th to April 28th
2011. This is to allow for further cooling of tempers and for
the security situation in those States to improve.
I wish to use this opportunity to express the
profound gratitude of our Commission, and I believe all
Nigerians, to the young men and women of the NYSC for the
excellent work they have done so far in very challenging
circumstances. I call on them, their parents and guardians not
to allow the perpetrators of violence to scare them away from
the noble job they are doing for this country. I commiserate
with all those who have been affected in one way or the other by
the violence. Some have paid the ultimate price for democracy
and I am sure that I speak the minds of all Nigerians if I say
that the nation will be eternally grateful to them. One way of
immortalizing them is to ensure that we complete the remaining
elections successfully and not succumb to the designs of people
who want to scuttle our collective aspiration for a strong,
united and democratic country.
BEING THE FULL TEXT OF AN ADDRESS TO THE MEDIA BY THE
CHAIRMAN, INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC),
PROF. ATTAHIRU M. JEGA, OFR ON THE 21ST
OF APRIL 2011
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