From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:NIGERIA: VOTING SYSTEM NEEDED 'NIGERIAN-FACTOR'-PROOF
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 22:08:10 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Asia, eastern
Title: NIGERIA: VOTING SYSTEM NEEDED 'NIGERIAN-FACTOR'-PROOF


an inter press service feature

by kole babalola

abuja, dec. 21 (ips) -- the government has modified its
much-abused open ballot system for the remaining elections that
will usher in civilian rule to this west african country, but
is still drawing criticism that the new method will not be
rigging-proof.

the open ballot system, where voters queue behind the
photograph of their chosen candidate and are publically counted,
proved a fiasco in presidential primaries earlier this year. it
led to their cancellation and an eight-month postponement in the
handover-date by the military government to august 1993.

the modification the national electoral commission (nec)  has
now proposed is the return of the ballot box, openly displayed,
but giving voters some measure of secrecy. it was a system that
worked tolerably well in ghana's november presidential election
according to international observers.

but rigging has been a fact of life in nigerian elections and
the ballot box, its stuffing and stealing, seen as the weakest
link in conducting an honest poll. the nec therefore hit on the
idea of the open ballot, but intimidation and bribery scuppered
that alternative.

voters, particularly the middle-classes, were adverse to
queing in the sun all day in the mayhem of the polling stations.
one of the two sanctioned political parties, the conservative
national republican convention (nrc) consistently opposed its
adoption as a built in handicap in their electoral chances.

doyin okupe, former publicity secretary of the nrc, says
the open ballot system, ''has continuously disenfranchised
many of our members and sympathisers who feel it is an
embarrassment to queue up to vote in the open''.

''the introduction of ballot boxes by nec is a step in
the right direction because it will now afford many people,
especially the elites, the opportunity to perform their
civic duties of voting'', okupe told ips.

okupe's view is shared by james akpan, a senior civil
servant: ''i can now go and vote for the candidate of my choice
without having to announce same to the whole world as the open
ballot would have meant since everybody knows how one has
voted''.

but adele jinadu, a former member of the nec and professor of
administration insists that, ''whatever anybody may say about
the system, it still remains the best in our unique situation''.
(more/ips)


nigeria: voting (2)

he is not optimistic about the change: ''the stark reality
nigerians must accept is that 'open secret ballot' is
essentially the same as secret ballot since it involves the use
of ballot boxes'', jinadu explains.

going back to the ballot box means, ''nigerians will,
therefore, have to contend with rigging which accompanied secret
voting in this country in the past'', he notes.

raheem adeleye, a lagos state legislator, considers the
introduction of ballot boxes as ''very unfortunate and a
signal that the coming elections may not be free and fair''.

since it was introduced in the local government elections
in 1990, the open ballot system has generated controversy
even in the nation's highest ruling body, the armed forces
ruling council (afrc).

sources told ips that the nec finally dumped the system for
two main reasons: continued criticism by top government
functionaries, and international donors who considered it
archaic.

but jinadu believes that despite the criticism stacked
against the open ballot, ''it is a simple and direct system of
voting which is a reasonable solution to serious problem of
stuffing of ballot boxes''.

out of 32-years of independence, civilians have only ruled
for 10 years. electoral fraud -- notably the 1983 election --
and ensuing political chaos each time prepared the ground for a
return by the military.

president ibrahim babangida has said his will be the last
military government and has since 1987 attempted to put in place
a new political order in the realisation that the problem is --
rather than the system adopted -- what is known as the
''nigerian factor'': nigerians themselves.

the open ballot may have worked successfully in the local
government, state assemblies and governorship elections. but
when it came to the high stakes of the presidential primaries,
the system collapsed. votes were bought and traded under the
noses of the nec regardless of the actual tally at the polling
stations.

the government has ordered that the primaries, supervised by
commissions, must be run again from the grassroots party base
through to the national conventions. but nigerians are now
beginning to question, given the history, whether there is any
system that can deliver a valid result and the rammifications
for civilian rule. (end/ips/kb/oa/92)

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