INEC Set To Compromise March 9 Polls – Middle Belt Forum

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has declared that the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has set the stage to compromise the forthcoming Saturday Governorship and State Assembly polls when it embarked on “mass cancellations of February 23 polls, mostly in the Middle Belt and Southern states. This action by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a deliberate and an orchestrated agenda to reduce voting strength of areas that are perceived not to be favourably disposed to the ruling party.”
According to a press statement signed by the National President of the Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, “Without any doubt, the cancelation of the polls by INEC has assisted in swinging victory for many candidates of the ruling party in the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly polls of February 23, 2019. Instances of repression of people’s electoral rights were widely reported in many states of Kogi, Plateau and Nasarawa, including Southern Gombe and Southern Kaduna, among others. For instance, the cancellations in Nasarawa state provided a platform for the emergence of all senators. In Karu Local Government Area of the same state, the cancelation of over 150,000 votes gave an edge to a former governor who was declared winner of the poll for the ruling party, and across the various states of the Middle Belt. In Taraba State, suppression of votes through mass cancellation of polls proved a swinger for the ruling party in a state the opposition enjoys popular support.”
Describing these cancelations as an act that caused “national outrage and international embarrassment,” the Forum alleged that the electoral umpire has “set the stage for a deliberate scheme to compromise the March 9 Governorship and State Assembly Elections, and pave the way for a fraudulent electoral process that will swing victory to governorship and state assembly candidates of the ruling party.
“These mass poll cancelations as declared by the electoral commission have led to massive disenfranchisement of millions of voters across the Middle Belt and Southern part of the country, thereby portraying INEC as a biased umpire that is in bed with the ruling party to foist electoral heist that has capacity to cause chaos in the country, if not promptly and properly addressed. The commission’s unjustifiable cancelation of the polls has also engendered apathy among voters, just as many Nigerians in the affected areas are wondering if their votes would ever count in the March 9 polls.”
The Forum drew the attention of Nigerians and the world to “incidences of over-voting in the states of Yobe and Borno, among others, where INEC refused to cancel these polls. This selective disposition in the conduct of the polls reveals that the electoral umpire was compromised and engaged in a devious scheme to suppress votes from certain areas, while turning a blind eye to the electoral irregularities in other areas that are strongholds of the ruling party.
“The MBF hereby condemns this orchestrated subversion of popular wish of the Middle Belt people and call on Nigerians to note these anomalies that have rendered the process a sham. Despite what has happened, the Forum calls on Nigerians to come out en masse and exercise their civic responsibility on Saturday March 9 and not be deterred by the illegal suppression of their votes.”