Between the National Assembly, the Presidency and the INEC, the battle over the election timetable is on-going. The INEC and the Presidency want the National Assembly and the Presidential elections to hold on the same. NASS, on the hand, wants the Presidential election done last with the National Assembly coming first. In this report, Assistant Editor, CHINWE MADUAGWU, examines the role of voting sequence in an election and finds out from Nigerians what they want.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the body vested with the authority to conduct elections in the country. To this end, the body has the legal right and responsibility to draw up the election timetable. On the other hand, the National Assembly is vested with the responsibility of making laws for the good governance of the people.
However, the order or sequence of voting for the 2019 elections seem to have set the electoral body, the presidency and the National Assembly on a collision course.
According to INEC’s timetable, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will take place on the same day, February 16, 2019 while the Governorship and State Assembly elections are to hold the same day on March 2, 2019.
This order of elections appears not to sit well with members of the National Assembly who are insisting that the National Assembly elections hold first while the Presidential election comes last. This position has been generating a lot of heat in the polity and especially between the Presidency, judiciary, INEC and NASS.
Why does the sequence of voting matter? Of what importance is it to the nation’s democracy which office is voted first. The Next Edition posed these questions to some Nigerians and also sought their views as to their preferences.
Mr. Igbonekwu Ogazimorah, Former Commissioner for Information Strategies, Culture and Tourism, Enugu State, said the sequence of voting played a very important role in the overall outcome of any election. “This issue of sequence of elections is actually the first stage in rigging an election. There is something called the bandwagon effect, and collective interests under a looming influence. If the Presidential election takes place before others, it compels all to work for the election of the president. But if the legislators are elected before the President, it leaves them a lot of rooms to maneuver. That is the time to determine voting or support for the President. It is also time to exert concessions from him.
“The President who is elected earlier than others will not accept to be pushed around. He can even choose not to support the election of a person who supported his own election,” he said.
On the flip side Mr. Ogazimorah, pointed out that electing the President first gives an undue advantage to his party. His words; “On a broader spectrum, the party that produces the president, if that is the first election simply begins to win down the line. Voters across Nigeria will definitely want to identify with the winning party. Even minority elements will like to be seen to be working with the ruling group.
“In like manner, some local strikers in the legislative and governorship election can abandon the Presidential Candidate after winning or losing the election.
“So, you can see that it makes a lot of differences. It matters to every candidate, be she/he for Presidency or Councillorship. Everybody wants to win. Not just for the prestige of winning but also because the highest paid job in Nigeria of today is to get into an elective office.”
All said, as a Nigerian what would he prefer to be the sequence of voting such that the country and the generality of the people would benefit the most? “If I am to make the decision, the proper thing would be some order of ascendance, from State Assembly to House of Representatives to Senate, to Governorship, and eventually to Presidency.
“That makes sense because that ought to be the order of mobilisation in national interest. You cannot have the President peak on matters before the smaller players do. The buck, they say, stops there at the top,” he concluded.
Mrs. Meg Barn Nzekwe was equally of the view that the sequence of voting is important. Her words “If the presidential election takes place first and Buhari wins, it’s most likely that his party will win landslide in other states. So, it will have a bandwagon effect.” And that she said would not be good for democracy.
Mr. Ike Abonyi, Special Adviser (Media) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus, also supported the view that the sequence of voting was important as it affects the quality of any democracy. Hear him, “the order of elections matters a lot because in any democracy, the quality of parliament determines the quality of the democracy.
“Any factor that will influence the quality of parliament may not be good for the quality of the democracy. If the presidential election comes first, it is most likely that in some of the constituencies somebody will win election whom the people may not have supported but because the president has won he can influence the voting. This happened in 2015 and because of it, we don’t have quality representation from the North. Immediately President Buhari won, there was a bandwagon effect,” he opined.
Mr. Abonyi contended that if the National Assembly elections were done first, people will vote based only on the influence and quality of individual contestants. “If the National Assembly election is done first, constituencies are voting based on the quality they want. There’s no bandwagon effect, nothing is influencing them except the influence and quality of the individual candidates in their area.”
He threw his weight behind the Senate’s agitations for the National Assembly elections to be done first pointing out that in bigger democracies of the world, parliamentary elections are held at different times from the presidential to avoid undue influence.
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div id=”m_7525101537924114267yMail_cursorElementTracker_1523097302374″ style=”text-align: justify;”>Prof Jachimike Adiele’s views also aligned with the others that the sequence of voting makes a difference to the outcome of elections in Nigeria. “In Nigeria, the sequence of voting does matter. Unfortunately, in Nigeria politicians do not have principles and voters follow these politicians. Now if candidate A wins the presidency, they will say power has either remained where it was or has changed hands and everybody will begin to realign themselves to that power. That’s what’s going on in the minds of the Senators and others when they struggle about the sequence,” he said.
To minimize the chances of undue influence, he suggested that election should start from the grassroots and if possible from the selection of delegates to the party conventions. His words, “I think the states should first regularise elections into the local governments because when they do that those who become elected at that level form part of the delegates who go to the national conventions. So there’s grassroots support in selecting people.
“I think we should build from bottom to top. After the local government elections, then we move on to the state level till eventually the presidency, having built the structures to support that. Any party that has done well through the rung is then in a good position to assume the presidency.”
This, according to him, will be a better deal for everybody rather than the other way round when a president emerges first either by rigging or fair means and begins to lord it down on the system.
For now the battle is on-going what it should be. But as Nigerians wait for the final decision on the voting sequence, the first step for everyone should be getting a PVC in order to have a voice in who gets elected come 2019 irrespective of which office is voted first.
