Violence and voter intimidation once again marred Saturday’s supplementary polls, as voters tried to take part in re-run governorship and state elections already postponed once because of unrest. Armed men armed with machetes, knives and cudgels took over polling stations, assaulting observers and journalists in Kano, northwest Nigeria. In Gama ward in Kano, men wielding machetes, daggers and cudgels invaded several polling stations, an AFP reporter saw, forcing voters to flee. In the nearby towns of Bichi and Gaya armed youths dispersed voters and thumb-printed ballot papers in favour of the ruling APC, voters and party agents said. Similar reports emerged in other states such as the north eastern Bauchi, where elections are being held.
Gama ward is seen as a decider in the re-run election. The opposition PDP said it was leading the ruling APC when the last vote was cancelled. Journalists and observers at polling units in Gama were attacked by the armed men, with police saving at least one journalist from assault. The PDP acting chairman in Kano, Rabiu Suleiman Bichi on Saturday called on INEC to cancel the elections. “As I address you now, we have reports that some of our agents have been killed, vehicles burnt, property destroyed,” he said.
The director for the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Idayat Hassan, condemned Saturday’s violence in these key wards. The violence would “raise questions of the legitimacy” of the results, she said. “Journalists and observers have been intimidated” because of a “win at all costs mentality” from politicians, she said. “Democracy is in trouble in Nigeria.”
The original elections a fortnight ago were declared invalid in some areas by INEC because of violence and disruption. Tension was high in states such as Kano, where the result was finely balanced heading into today’s poll between the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP. The decision by INEC to void the March 9 elections in six states came two weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari won a second term. His main rival Atiku Abubakar denounced the results as “a sham”.
INEC said violence and other irregularities had prompted voting to be cancelled in some areas of Kano and Sokoto, in the northwest; Bauchi and Adamawa in the northwest; and the central states of Benue and Plateau. A legal challenge, however, meant that the planned election in Adamawa did not go ahead Saturday, leaving five states to vote in the re-run.
Political tensions have frayed since Buhari’s re-election. Abubakar, the defeated PDP candidate, has challenged the result in an election tribunal, claiming that the results in several states were manipulated.
Election observers, citing reports of vote buying and intimidation, have criticized the organization and running of the governorship and state elections, as well as the February 23 presidential and parliamentary polls. The Situation Room, an umbrella group of more than 70 civil society organizations monitoring the vote, has called for an independent inquiry into the entire election process.
The opposition PDP denounced INEC’s decision to halt voting in affected states, claiming it was “clearly leading the (governorship) race,” accusing INEC of collusion with the ruling party. A seventh poll, in Rivers state, is to be run next month. The original count there was also suspended because of violence, INEC said
