Accusations have trailed the conduct of the Edo state Governorship elections from different quarters.
Besides the winning opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), all other political parties, especially the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insist the September 21 election was a fraud.
The PDP allegedly preempted the electoral body and announced the election results before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), insinuating that anything different that comes after the PDP’s count is a farce.
Besides the PDP, some observers like Yiaga Africa classified the election results at best as fractured facts.
A report by Yiaga Africa states “The incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials, observers, and party agents and the collation of results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, severely undermine the credibility of the election results.
“Yiaga Africa strongly condemns the actions of some biased INEC officials who altered figures during collation including the actions of some security officials who interfered with the collation process.”
The candidate of the Labour Party, Olumide Akpata, who came a distant third, also insisted the conduct of the election was deeply flawed.
In short, every party except the APC believes INEC announced a lie.
But the APC too feels the PDP announcement of results was something between a misdemeanour and a desperate attempt at statistical fiction.
As things stand, it appears there are good liars on both sides.
Beyond Partisan Lies: Election Facts 2012 – 2024
Every election in Edo state since 2012, and indeed Nigeria, has been contested as rigged. Political parties in Nigeria, PDP, APC, ACN, APP, LP, and the rest, agree that INEC results are true only when they win.
This resembles a new phenomenon developing with a new political movement in the US, where a candidate defines a free and fair election as the one in which he wins – ‘the elections are rigged except it favours me syndrome.’
However, when partisan counts are kept out of the voting conversation, the facts begin to emerge.
First, the collective electoral indices in Edo State are on the decline.
While the increasing number of people turning 18 years old feeds the voter register with more numbers every four years, those who vote among them are decreasing in number and proportion in each election cycle.
This pattern of low voter turnout could be due to a lack of trust in the electoral system, security concerns, the perception that individual votes are inconsequential, and the disillusion of economic hardship.