For positions in both the Senate and House of Representatives, the competition has been quite tense and dramatic as legislators campaign among their colleagues leading up to the inauguration of the 9th Assembly on June 11th and the election of its leaders.

Who are the candidates? What positions are they vying for? What political parties do they represent? And what are their chances?

Position: Senate President

Contenders: Ahmed Lawan (Yobe); Mohammed Ali Ndume (Borno); Mohammed Danjuma Goje (Gombe); and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa). 

With a total of 64 senators-elect, the All Progressive Congress (APC), holds a majority at the legislative upper house. This means the party will produce the next Senate President; consequently, all the contenders for that position are members of the APC.

However, while all equally representing the same party, their chances at winning the Senate presidency is far from equal. So far, two Senators are leading the race; Senators Ahmed Lawan and Ali Ndume.

In March, during a dinner at the Presidential Villa, the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, allegedly endorsed Senator Ahmed Lawan as the party’s candidate for the presidency of the 9th Senate.

Oshiomhole’s declaration has since caused a stir within the party, particularly among the faction loyal to Ali Ndume, the senator-elect from Borno State. A senator-elect from the party was quoted saying that Ndume’s supporters were displeased by Oshiomhole’s bullying.

Even though he is not the anointed candidate, Ndume, and indeed Lawan, have both been campaigning among their colleagues within the APC, and those in other political parties.

The main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), meanwhile is alleged to be plotting against Lawan’s candidacy. Senators-elect from the opposition are allegedly against his candidacy because he will compromise the independence of the legislature if he is elected. To avoid that, the main opposition is reportedly working to give block-votes to any other candidate who will preserve the independence of the Senate.

Position: Deputy Senate President

• Contenders: Francis Alimekhen (APC, Edo); Ovie Omo-Agege (APC, Delta); Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos); Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano), Orji Uzor Kalu (APC, Abia) and Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu).

The two main leaders of the 8th Assembly defected to the PDP shortly before the 2019 elections. In the Senate, this meant that both the President and Deputy Senate President were members of the main opposition even though APC had a majority in the House. In a bid to avoid a recurrence in the 9th Assembly, the APC has vowed that it will not share power with the main opposition. If the party indeed goes through with it, the position of the Deputy Senate President will also be occupied by a member of the ruling APC.

Read more about the contenders for the positions of Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives here.

Position: Speaker, House of Representatives

• Contenders: Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa); Mukhtar Aliyu Betara (APC, Borno); Idris Wase (APC, Plateau); Umar Bago (APC, Niger); Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (APC, Abia); Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos); John Okafor (APC, Imo); Babangida Ibrahim (APC, Katsina); and Mohammed Kazaure (APC, Jigawa).

As was the case with the leadership of the Senate, the APC also chose a party favorite for the position of the Speaker, House of Representatives. Oshiomhole, during another function, reportedly spoke on behalf of the party saying that Femi Gbajabiamila, a five-term member of the House, had been chosen as the next Speaker.

This decision has also not gone down well among members of the party. Two representatives, in particular, have had no reservations about their disapproval of Gbajabiamila as the anointed one.

Bago from Niger State and John Dyegh of Benue State have insisted for the party to zone the leadership of the House to the North-Central geopolitical zone. Both have claimed that the region is yet to produce a Speaker since the Fourth Republic began in 1999. However, the problem with that line of reasoning is that at least three other regions are also yet to produce a Speaker.

Members of the opposition have also found an opportunity here; they are allegedly waiting for the internal conflict within the APC to blow up so that they can elect their preferred candidates against the wish of the ruling party. To ensure that this works out, they have insisted for the method of voting to be the secret ballot method. As expected, the APC has kicked against that voting method.

Buhari’s Stance

In all of this, the President has so far managed to present an impartial front by refraining to speak in support of or against any of the candidates. Though Senator Ndume stated that Buhari had given his blessings for him to run for the presidency of the Senate, it cannot be taken as an indicator of Buhari’s preference for the Borno Senator. Still, Buhari has a vested interest in the leadership of the National Assembly, particularly given the problematic relationship he had with the leadership of the 8th Assembly.

Whether or not he comes out in favor of a preferred candidate, President Buhari, perhaps like the rest of Nigerians, has to wait and see how things will play in the next couple of weeks.

The post Race to the 9th Assembly appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

On the same day, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, released a statement in which he pointed out several issues with the electoral process. Atiku concluded his statement saying:

I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019 sham election and will be challenging it in court.

The decision to reject the results of the elections by Atiku and the PDP has since set in motion a series of events which this article aims to chronicle as Nigerians, and indeed the world, look towards the inauguration of incumbent and president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.

First Came the Rejection

Prior to the official rejection statement, the PDP had urged INEC to stop the collation of results for the presidential election, highlighting seven reasons they felt this was necessary. However, with the refusal of INEC to halt the collation process and the declaration of Buhari as the winner, the PDP went on to list even more reasons why the February 23 elections were a “sham.”

The party claimed that some of the issues which were observed had been “premeditated malpractices” which negated the election results. They presented documented evidence for about 16 cases of electoral malpractices, including rigging, snatching of ballot boxes, burning of ballot papers; violence against voters and electoral officers, etc.

Keeping with the decision to challenge Buhari’s victory in court, Atiku inaugurated a legal team headed by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), on March 2, and on March 18, the party officially filed its petition.

Then Came the Petition, Evidence, and Denial

As part of the evidence presented to challenge Buhari’s victory, Atiku and PDP’s legal team presented an alternative result to the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal (PEPT) which showed that Atiku had won by a total of 18 million votes, defeating Buhari who, they claimed, had gotten 16 million votes. The alternative results had allegedly been released by an INEC whistleblower who had access to the commission’s internal server.

The PDP also presented unique identification information of computers which they claimed belonged to INEC while calling experts from Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle to corroborate the information.

The Electoral Commission responded to PDP’s allegations by stating that the alternative results had been fabricated and “invented for the purpose of this case.”

Meanwhile, the APC agreed with INEC’s claims that the server results had been fabricated and further claimed that the PDP had illegally intercepted a public institution’s communications system. However, the PDP in response presented an affidavit from 12 INEC officials who they claimed will testify against the Commission.

Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal (PEPT) Inaugural Hearing, and the Case against Bulkachuwa

The PEPT is a panel of five judges sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja. As the name implies, the tribunal, by law, is assigned to preside over presidential and vice-presidential election matters and by such powers will preside over the petitions related to the presidential election, including the case against Buhari’s victory as filed by Atiku and the PDP.

The tribunal had its inaugural sitting on Wednesday, May 8 and fixed May 15 as the date to begin hearing on filed petitions. The tribunal has about 180 days (from the date of filing of the petition) to hear and deliver its judgment, and with an alleged 400 witnesses set to testify, in the case, the PEPT has no time to waste. However, for the PDP, one problem stands in the tribunal’s way; the person of Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, the President of Nigeria’s Courts of Appeal and head of the PEPT.

Justice Bulkachuwa is married to Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa, who is a member of the APC and a Bauchi State senator-elect. Additionally, her son, Aliyu Haidar-Abubakar is also a prominent member of the APC. According to the PDP, Justice Bulkachuwa’s ties to the APC creates the possibility of bias in the execution of her duties as the head of the PEPT.

The PDP filed an official motion on May 16 requesting an order to rescue Justice Bulkachuwa from further participation in PEPT proceedings and for her to be replaced by another Justice of the Appeal Court. The case has been slated for hearing on May 22.

Does this Affect The Presidential Inauguration?

Simply, no. None of this legal drama will affect Buhari’s inauguration, except it is established by the PEPT between now and May 29 that he, in fact, was not the winner of the February elections. However, despite the ongoing legal drama and other cases against Buhari’s victory at the Election Tribunal, the federal government is still carrying on with plans to inaugurate President Buhari on May 29. Even though the celebrations marking the inauguration will hold on June 12, given the recent declaration of the day as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day.

The post Atiku’s case against Buhari’s re-election; a brief history appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

At the end of the general gubernatorial elections on the 9th of March, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was forced to reschedule the elections in six states including: Benue, Adamawa, Plateau, Sokoto, Kano and Bauchi.

These states’ elections were declared inconclusive as a result of irregularities recorded during the collation process, ranging from violence and several incidents of ballot box snatching, to inadequacies in the votes that forced the commission to arrange supplementary polls.

Benue state’s incumbent governor and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Samuel Ortom won his second term election bid with 434,473 votes. However, incidences of violence were recorded in the state with youths in Chito, the headquarters of Azendasha ward, Ukum Local Government Area, snatching and burning election materials.

INEC officials and PDP agents were also attacked during the elections in Ukum Local Government Area.

In Bauchi state, allegations were leveled against the police, with members of the security agency allegedly abducting INEC staff and stuffing ballot boxes during the elections.

While a large turnout was recorded during the elections, eyebrows were raised when the Returning Officer of the state failed to show up at the collation centre at the chosen time for result collation to begin.

Arriving almost 10 hours later, the collation process started without any explanation for the RO’s absence.

APC members were allegedly attacked by youths in the Nassarawo Jereng area of Adamawa State during the collation of results for Nassarawo/Binyeri House of Assembly elections, although security agencies have reiterated that they were satisfied with the way the election was conducted.

The supplementary polls in Plateau and Sokoto states were unlike the other states, as the election was conducted in a peaceful manner, with no known records of violence or vote buying.

Sokoto State recorded a massive turnout of voters, with elections commencing as early as 8am on Saturday.

Unfortunately, Kano State elections recorded several acts of violence and unrest, with thugs allegedly using dangerous weapons to attack and intimidate voters. This eventually resulted in the death of about four PDP supporters in the state.

This, in turn, prompted the PDP to request that the elections be cancelled.

Additionally, the PDP noted that its candidate was in the clear lead during the March 9 polls, which makes his current loss suspicious.

The party also accused the opposition and incumbent governor Abdullahi Ganduje, of using thugs to oppress voters and carry out electoral malpractice.

While, the supplementary polls seemed to be a bit of an improvement, it still fell short in terms of what a democratic election process should be like. Voter intimidation and killings still seem to be a major flaw in the Nigerian electoral process and it needs to be properly evaluated. 

The post #NigeriaDecides2019: Re-run Election Round-up appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

While the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused each other of planning to rig or militarize the election, the supplementary polls were still held.

While Adamawa’s supplementary governorship polls have been suspended indefinitely, based on a court order, INEC has gone on to declare winners in the other states.

Here’s a quick run down of the results:

Benue State

In the food basket of the nation, the incumbent governor and PDP candidate, Samuel Ortom, was re-elected for a second term.

According to the state’s Returning Officer, Professor Maimako Sebastian, who announced the result on Sunday, Ortom pulled in 434, 473 votes against his main rival and APC candidate, Emmanuel Jime’s 345,155 votes. The margin between both candidates was recorded as 89,318 votes

The state’s original election on March 9 was tagged inconclusive as a result of the gap between the cancelled votes, 121,019 and the winning margin of only 81,554 votes.

Kano State

In what has been dubbed the most controversial state in this year’s election, Kano State’s polls have been marred by violence and electoral malpractice. At the end of collation for the state’s governorship polls, the APC candidate and current governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, won his second term bid with 1,033,695 votes as opposed to Abba Yusuf’s 1,024,713 votes.

A close call for both parties with only 9,000 votes between them.

The PDP has, however, issued a statement rejecting the outcome of the election.

Plateau State

In Plateau State, another second term bid was secured as the APC candidate and incumbent governor, Solomon Lalong, won the vote.

In an announcement by the state’s Returning Officer, Professor Richard Kimbir, Lalong won with 595,582 votes, defeating PDP’s Jeremiah Useni, who polled 546,813 votes.

During the March 9 elections, the governor received 583,255 votes, while Useni polled 538,326 votes.

However, the electoral umpire was forced to declare the elections inconclusive based on the 44,929 margin of lead and the total number of cancelled votes of 49,377.

Sokoto State

Recording the slimmest margin of all the candidates, the PDP flag bearer and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, secured his re-election bid with 512, 002 votes, while APC’s Ahmed Aliyu came in second place with a margin of 341 votes, polling 511,661.

During the collation of results from the March 9 polls, Tambuwal was still in the lead with 489,558 votes, while Ahmed Aliyu was a close second with 486,145 votes, before the results were declared inconclusive.

Bauchi State

While the state might have suffered a setback as the absence of its Returning Officer resulted in a late collation process, PDP candidate, Bala Mohammed, eventually won the governorship race with 6,376 votes.

He won the elections over the APC candidate and incumbent governor, Muhammed Abubakar, who polled 5,117 votes at the end of the supplementary polls.

The commission is yet to give full details on its plan for Rivers and Adamawa states.  

The post #NigeriaDecides2019: Round Up of Supplementary Governorship Election Results appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

As the inauguration of newly elected and re-elected leaders draws nearer, and before Nigerians are engulfed in collective amnesia, it is necessary to go over the election season for the sake of documenting the challenges faced as well as highlighting some of the lessons learned.

The Challenges

Violence: A high rate of violence was recorded in the period shortly before the elections and during the elections. About 181 people were reported to have been killed in the days leading to the initial date slated for the presidential elections in February.

However, a postponement of the February 18 elections to February 23 deepened tension within the country, and likely the occurrence of violence. The European Union Observer Mission (EU OM) recorded that approximately 20 and 35 people were killed in incidents related to the elections on February 23.

These deaths do not take into account the number of deaths and casualties from terrorist attacks in Yobe and Borno States before voting commenced on the same day.

A total of 11 states were flashpoints during both the presidential and gubernatorial elections. However, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, and Rivers were seen to be the most affected. Across Anambra, Lagos, and Rivers states, violence and security crises led to the cancellation of the electoral processes.

Credibility: The credibility of the entire electoral process has been questioned and debated since the conclusion of the elections in March. Several cases contesting the results of the elections are at various election tribunals seeking fair hearing by the judiciary.

A major challenge which raises doubts over the credibility of the elections is the rate of canceled ballots which has been stated to have undermined the votes of up to 3 million Nigerians. Elections were declared inconclusive in seven states as a result of the cancellations. Coincidentally, or not, the PDP was leading in five of these states.

Another challenge was the interference by security agents. Several cases of harassment —against INEC officials, members of civil society organizations, and the media, by security agents, were reported. In Rivers State, for example, military personnel reportedly prevented members of the European Union and Nigerian civil society observers from gaining access to collation centers. Subsequently, Rivers was one of the states where the elections were canceled and had to be rescheduled.

Recorded cases of vote buying were seen to have dominated in a few states across the nation. This has also cast a shadow of doubts about the legitimacy of some of the victories recorded. States where vote buying was recorded, include Adamawa, Sokoto, Lagos, Delta, Enugu, Ekiti, Bauchi, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Kwara, Zamfara, Kebbi, Oyo, Kano, and Osun.

Voter Apathy: The 2019 elections have had the lowest voter turnout since 1999. This has been attributed to the postponement, by a week, of the presidential election, and the militarization of the process which is believed to have led to voter intimidation. In addition, Nigerians are assumed to be losing faith in the freedom and fairness of the electoral process.

How Can Nigeria Do Better?

Nigeria has received several recommendations on how it can conduct better elections from international organizations as well local players and stakeholders. Foremost amongst them is the need to review and improve on electoral laws.

The National Executive Council of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) blamed the irregularities and violence witnessed during the elections on the refusal to review and update electoral laws prior to the 2019 elections. The party has urged the incoming administration to work towards reviewing electoral laws before 2023. Some of the challenges a review will address include restrictions on candidacy, weak transparency and accountability measures, and the absence of sanctioning powers for INEC.

The onus for electoral reforms has been placed on INEC as well as the responsibility for naming institutions, individuals and events which might have undermined its ability to conduct better elections. Beyond these, the Commission has been urged to be more transparent. Particularly with the results and collation processes; the provision of voter guidelines and election officials’ manuals; and with the overall dissemination of relevant information to political parties and voters.

There is also a need for security agencies to be held accountable for the misconduct of their agents during the elections. The military seems to have been at the fore of many of the cases of misconducts recorded; while the Nigerian Army has denied the involvement of its men, it has nonetheless set up a committee to investigate the activities of its personnel in all states accused of electoral misconduct. Other agencies, the Nigerian Police Force, the Department of State Security can also follow suit.

The incoming administration has its work cut out for it because it will be responsible for investigating and ensuring accountability for loss of life, voter disenfranchisement, and efforts to manipulate election results, etc. The administration is also responsible for ensuring that the mistakes of the 2019 elections are not repeated in 2023.

Nigerians, and indeed the world, is watching to see how it will fare in executing these responsibilities.

The post Postmortem of Nigeria’s 2019 general elections appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

Based on the verified results available to us, the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party is in the lead in both states. In Imo state, the party has about 50 per cent advantage over its closest rivals including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance (AA) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The will of the people must be respected and the electoral commission, INEC should now take the bull by its horn and announce the results immediately to prevent a breakdown of law and order in both states which have been very volatile during this electoral cycle.

Any attempts to thwart the will of the people could lead to dire consequences.

Track the results live here on BBC

The post Imo, Kano: The will of the people must be respected to prevent chaos appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

Here are some of the reasons for the low turnout given by top five politicians including former VP Atiku Abubakar, Speaker Dogara and APC National leader Bola Tinubu.

Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and PDP presidential candidate

There is low voter turn out and I believe it’s because of the last election which was marred by a lot of irregularities.”

Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives

From the conduct of the election, I think, it is peaceful, but what I have seen here is that there is no mammoth crowd like the last election. I don’t know what happened and some of you who were here during the election saw the crowd, but I can’t see that kind of turnout here today. I don’t know what is responsible for that, may be voter apathy. The fear that people’s vote may not count is the reason why people did not turn up as such because we saw that in the last election, the problem was not with the voting, people came out to vote, the problem started at the collation level, especially at the ward level

Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos state and APC National Leader

INEC should extend the time of voting to accommodate those who are still coming to vote for their candidate. This is a very unusual year of election, characterised by low turnout. It is universal, the whole world is experiencing apathy. Politicians need to develop a means to get people encouraged. Our youths need to be aware and take democracy very seriously because it affects their lives.

Jimi Agbaje, Lagos PDP Gubernatorial candidate

The low turnout should concern those who want to advance the cause of democracy. Citizens should be part of the democratic process. They must want their voice and votes to count. So, when you don’t have a good turnout, there are many factors that could account for it. It could be as a result of what happened in the last election in terms thuggery, violence, ballot-snatching, that could have affected. But there are deeper issues. If people do not believe in the process, then they ask themselves, “Why bother? So it is a chicken and egg situation, we just must continue to appeal to them to continue to exercise their civic responsibility. 

Abiola Ajimobi, Oyo State Governor 

The reason for the low turnout could be as a result of discouragement, fatigue, disappoint or other reasons.

The post See the reasons these five top politicians are giving for low voter turnout appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

Unfortunately, this development has led to the loss of lives of citizens including security personnel themselves. See some of the incidents below:

Bayelsa: Soldiers kill ballot snatcher

Soldiers in Bayelsa reportedly killed (extrajudicially) a young man who attempted to snatch the ballot box. The incident occurred at a polling unit in Four Square road, Otuoke (home of former President Goodluck Jonathan). The soldiers chased him and gunned him down. 

President Muhammadu Buhari prior to the general elections warned that persons who attempted to snatch ballot boxes would pay for it with their lives. Someone just got paid. 

Rivers: Soldiers killed, Security Operatives bar people from voting in

According to reports from a security intelligence firm, some soldiers have been shot dead at Omoku Ogba, Egbema Local Government of Rivers state around 5:40PM. Their rifles were taken away by the gang members suspected to be political thugs. 

In the Ikwerre local government area (home town of Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi), heavy gunshots by security officials and thugs led to disruption of voting in several areas, the gunshots continued into the afternoon, preventing many citizens from voting. 

In some other places in the LGA where voting held, the security operatives supervised the snatching of ballot box by hoodlums. 

The post Security officials are disrupting the gubernatorial polls in Nigeria and its costing lives appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

Citizens who went out to exercise their electoral franchise observed low turnout in their polling stations and took to social media to voice their complains.

An election observer affiliated to the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre, Amara Nwankpa, noted the low turnout at the heart of the Federal Capital Territory. His tweet suggests that the voters might have been disinterested in what is deemed the less important elections. The elections in the FCT is to fill the chairmanship and councilorship seats.

For Saratu Abiola, a columnist with a number of news publications, the electorates might have opted out of the polls as a result of the violence. Her assertions are not far-fetched. The recently concluded presidential and national assembly recorded the deaths of at least three dozen people.

The case was no different in Lagos State, the country’s most populated voting state according to the figures of registered voters released by the electoral commission, INEC. Segun Awosanya, a civic activist and convener of the #EndSARS movement said that the turnout allows room for easy manipulation of the results and warned that it is a bad omen for our democratic experience.

Andrew Madaki of the Global Shapers Abuja hub offered an explanation for the widespread low turnout, and according to him, it’s likely that citizens have lost faith in the electoral process.

It could be worse, a Twitter user said he would never vote again except the current form of voting changes.

Rita Onwurah, a film maker says there is no surprise. She says all finger is pointing to the elections conducted two weeks ago.

The situation presents a research opportunity for yet another person:

Chioma Chuka, another observer delivered what is potentially the ‘wildest’ tweet of the day based on her observation. In one of the areas she visited, people did not even realize that there were elections holding today.

The post Widespread apathy rocks Nigeria’s gubernatorial polls appeared first on Nigerian 2019 General Elections.

Speaking at a meeting of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) ahead of Saturday elections, he assured that the commission would improve on its performance from the previous election.

“A total of 1,082 candidates will be elected by citizens across the country. Learning from the experience of the Presidential and National Assembly elections held two weeks ago, the Commission has effectively tackled the challenge of logistics,’’ he said.

Mahmoud makes these statements assuming an ideal situation. However, his bigger headache should be his inability to control what happens on the field of play that is being disrupted by thugs, bandits and frankly speaking security operatives who are no different. One would have thought that security agents were meant to defend the integrity of the polls.

Already, less than 48 hours to the polls in Akwa Ibom – one of the 29 states holding elections today – an office of the commission has been burnt down with electoral materials including card readers. (INEC says the materials have all been replaced)

Another instance has been recorded in Benue where thugs have burnt down the “entire materials” needed for the conduct of the polls in one of the wards in the state.

Besides these incidents, there has been a siege over certain states in the country where voters are scared to come out to exercise their electoral franchise. Armed military men have reportedly invaded homes of politicians belonging to the national opposition party, PDP in Rivers and Taraba states and the list goes on and on.

Even Prof. Mahmoud admits these concerns.

“The commission is concerned that many of our materials, including ballot boxes, voting cubicles, voters’ registers, and smart cards, were lost to the act of hooliganism and thuggery in the elections held two weeks ago. Most worrisome is the attack on electoral officials. Some of our staff were abducted and taken hostage in an attempt to disrupt elections or influence the outcome.”

The truth is that INEC can talk all it wants but frankly they cannot bite in a field of play that has been hijacked by desperate and roguish politicians.

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