Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC)
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Making The VOTES COUNT A Report of the 2008 Local Government Council Elections in Rivers State By the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission First Reprint {November 2010} 1 CONTENTS Page ABBREVIATIONS --------- vii FOREWORD --------- viii SECTION 1 - PRELIMINARIES 1 1.1 - Background Information - - - - 1 1.1.1 - Appointment and Swearing-in 1 1.1.2 - State of the Commission as at 27th November 2007 - 1 1.2 - Settling Down to Work - - - - 2 1.2.1 - Early Board Meetings - - - - 2 1.2.2 - Assignment of Responsibilities - - - 3 SECTION 2 - CONSULTATIONS WITH STAKEHOLDERS - 5 2.1 - Meetings with Stakeholders - - - - 5 2.2 - Stakeholders’ Summit - - - - 6 2.3 - Development of the Code of Conduct - - 6 2.4 - Tour of Local Government Areas - - - 6 2.5 - Concerns Expressed during the Consultations - 7 2.6 - Suggestions Offered during the Consultations - 8 SECTION 3 - PREPARATIONS FOR THE ELECTIONS - - 11 3.1 - Assessment of Election Materials - - - 11 3.1.1 - Sensitive Materials - - - - - 11 3.1.2 - Non-Sensitive Materials - - - - 11 3.1.3 - Vehicles - - - - - - 12 3.2 - Announcement of the Date and Presentation of Election Documents - - - - 12 3.2.1 - Announcement of the Date of the Elections - - 12 3.2.2 - Presentation of Code of Conduct - - - 12 3.2.3 - Presentation of Election Guidelines - - - 12 3.3 - Display of Register of Voters - - - - 13 3.4 - Printing/Design/ Purchase of Sensitive and Non-Sensitive Materials - - - - 13 3.4.1 - Ballot Papers - - - - - - 13 3.4.2 - Result Sheets - - - - - - 14 3.4.3 - Production of a Compendium of Wards and Units - 16 3.4.4 - Purchase of other Election Materials - - - 16 3.5 - Packaging of Election Materials - - - 16 3.6 - Logistics - - - - - - 16 3.6.1 - Transport Arrangements - - - - 16 3.6.2 - Identification of Polling Units - - - - 17 iii 3.7 - RECRUITMENT, TRAINING AND APPOINTMENT OF AD HOC STAFF - - 17 3.7.1 - Recruitment Process - - - - - 17 3.7.2 - Training of Ad hoc Staff - - - - 18 3.7.3 - Deployment of Ad hoc Staff - - - - 18 3.7.4 - Appointment of Electoral Officers - - - 20 SECTION 4 - PRIMARIES OF POLITICAL PARTIES - - 21 4.1 - Invitation of Political Parties - - - - 21 4.2 - Monitoring of the Primaries - - - - 21 SECTION 5 - PUBLIC AND VOTER EDUCATION - - 23 5.1 - Public Education - - - - - 23 5.2 - Voter Education - - - - - 23 5.2.1 - Objectives of the Voter Education Programme - 23 5.2.2 - Outcome of the Voter Education Programme - 24 5.3 - Broadcast by the Chairman of the Commission - 24 SECTION 6 - PUBLIC RELATIONS - - - - 25 6.1 - Courtesy Visits to Media Establishments - - 25 6.2 - Responses by the Media - - - - 25 6.3 - Courtesy Calls by some Organisations - - 26 6.4 - RSIEC Hospitality - - - - - 26 SECTION 7 - SECURITY - - - - - - 27 SECTION 8 - THE ELECTIONS - - - - - 29 8.1 - Pre-commencement of Polls - - - 29 8.2 - Incidents at the Polls - - - - 29 8.3 - Monitoring of the Polls - - - - 30 8.4 - End of Polls and Declaration of Results - - 30 8.5 - Declaration of Results - - - - 31 SECTION 9 - LITIGATION - - - - - 33 9.1 - Overview - - - - - - 33 9.2 - Pre-Election Cases - - - - - 33 9.3 - Post-Election Cases - - - - - 33 9.4 - Court Orders - - - - - - 35 SECTION 10 - FINANCE - - - - - - 37 SECTION 11 - CONCLUSION - - - - - 39 11.1 - Challenges - - - - - - 39 11.2 - Achievements - - - - - 41 11.3 - Lessons Learnt - - - - - 42 11.4 - Recommendations and Implementation Strategies - 43 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1.0 Schedule of Duties of the Chairman/Commissioners - - 3 Table 3.1 March 29, 2008 Elections Result Sheets and Quantities - 15 Table 3.2 April 19, 2008 Re-Run Elections Result Sheets and Quantities - 15 Table 3.3 Ad hoc Staff Disposition - - - - - - 19 v LIST OF APPENDICES Photographs - - - - - - - - 45 1.1 Profile of Chairman, Commissioners and Secretary of the Commission - 53 2.1 Schedule of Meetings with Stakeholders - - - - - 62 2.2 Code of Conduct for the 2008 Local Government Council Elections - 63 2.3 Schedule for the Visits to the 23 Local Government Areas - - - 66 2.4 Guidelines for the 2008 Local Government Council Elections - - 67 2.5 Application Form for the Recruitment of Ad hoc Staff - - - 83 3.1 Time Table for the 2008 Local Government Council Elections - - 85 3.2(a) Sample of Ballot Paper - Chairmanship - - - - 87 3.2(b) Sample of Ballot Paper - Councillorship - - - - 88 3.3(a) Statement of Result of Poll from Polling Station – Chairmanship - - 89 3.3(b) Statement of Result of Poll from Polling Station – Councillorship - - 90 3.4(a) Statement of Result of Poll from Polling Station – Chairmanship Collation at Ward level - - - - 91 3.4(b) Statement of Result of Poll from Polling Station – Councillorship Collation at Ward level - - - - 92 3.4(c) Statement of Result of Poll from Polling Station – Chairmanship Collation at LGA level - - - - - - 93 3.5 Training Manual for Electoral personnel - - - - - 95 3.6 Training Schedule for Electoral personnel - - - - - 145 3.7 Certificate of Return - Chairmanship - - - - - 148 3.8 Certificate of Return - Councillorship - - - - - 149 4.1 List of Political Parties- - - - - - - - 150 4.2 Checklist for Primaries of Political Parties - - - - - 152 5.1 Chairman’s Broadcast Speech - - - - - - 154 8.1 SummarySheetofCandidates’Scores - - - - - 156 8.2 Results of the 2008 Local Government Council Elections - - - 157 9.1 Pre-Election Cases - - - - - - - - 264 9.2 Councillorship Cases at the Election Tribunals - - - - 266 9.3 Chairmanship Cases at the Election Tribunals - - - - 272 9.4 Cases at the Election Appeal Tribunals - - - - - 275 9.5 CourtOrders- - - - - - - - - 279 vi ABBREVIATIONS AC ACTION CONGRESS ANPP ALL NIGERIA PEOPLES PARTY APC ASSISTANT POLL CLERK APN ACTION PARTY OF NIGERIA ARP AFRICAN RENAISSANCE PARTY BHC BORI HIGH COURT CA COURT OF APPEAL CNPP CONFERENCE OF NIGERIA POLITICAL PARTIES CPN COMMUNITY PARTY OF NIGERIA ET ELECTION TRIBUNAL EAT ELECTION APPEAL TRIBUNAL EO ELECTORAL OFFICER JTF JOINT TASK FORCE LGA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA LGRO LOCAL GOVERNMENT RETURNING OFFICER NGO NON-GOVERNMNETAL ORGANISATION NWLR NIGERIA WEEKLY LAW REPORT OON OFFICER OF THE ORDER OF THE NIGER PDP PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY PHC PORT HARCOURT PC POLL CLERK PO PRESIDING OFFICER RSIEC RIVERS STATE INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSION RSBC RIVERS STATE BROADCASTING CORPORATION SPO SUPERVISORY PRESIDING OFFICER WRO WARD RETURNING OFFICER vii FOREWORD Many Nigerians believe that one important factor that has hindered the nation from attaining its potential of an egalitarian, rich, prosperous country with a stable polity, despite its huge endowment in human and material resources, has been the nation’s inability over the years to conduct elections, which results are widely accepted as representing the people’s wish. Other than the 1993 Presidential elections, the results of which were unfortunately annulled, many Nigerians regard most other elections in the country as having been marred by partisanship of the electoral body, unbridled violence leading to loss of lives and various forms of corrupt practices, including the manipulation of votes through dishonest and deceptive means, especially by the political class. If this is true of elections at the national level, it is generally believed that the situation is far worse at the local government level where public opinion holds that state electoral commissions, in which constitutional responsibility for conducting elections at that level is vested, simply reflect the wishes of the party of the government in power without the slightest recourse to fairness, equity and aspirations of the people. Indeed, so strongly debated have election issues become in Nigeria, with a huge outcry for electoral reforms, that they are currently situated on the front burner of national discourse as flawed elections have come to be regarded by many as the very essence of the nation’s backwardness. It is this setting that might have informed the charge by the Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, to the Chairman and members of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC), when he inaugurated the Commission on the 27th of November, 2007, “to salvage the electoral process and to conduct an election which would be worthy of emulation by other electoral commissions in the country”. As a Commission, we took this assignment seriously and put in great thought and time into our work. In the process, we came to the decision that the rational way to commence this important task was to undertake extensive consultations with many stakeholders in the State, not just in Port Harcourt, the state capital, but in all the 23 local government areas of the State, to find out from them why, in their opinion, previous viii elections had been so flawed that the electoral process needed a “salvage” as was averred by the State Governor. The information so obtained from the political parties, the security agencies, professional bodies, market women, the clergy, staff of the Commission and many others was rich and revealing. This approach, not minding its cost and security risks at the time, was very effective. It formed the basis for a careful planning of the electoral process, consisting of voter education, recruitment and training of electoral personnel, supervision and monitoring of the primaries of political parties, ensuring the safety of electoral materials and sanctity of the ballots, among others. What follows in this report is an honest account of what happened during the 2008 local government electoral process. It describes the efforts we made, the many challenges we faced, especially