BY CHARLES KUMOLU
CHAIRMAN of Delta State Independent Electoral Commission, DISEC, Akpoyoma Ogbe in this interview, says that the commission has surmounted most of the challenges that could militate against the credible conduct of the exercise scheduled for October.
What is the level of preparedness of DISEC ahead of the forthcoming local government elections in the state?
When the Commission was inaugurated on May 14, 2013, the main charge the governor gave us was to go and conduct the election as soon as possible. When we assumed office, the first step we took was to go round the 25local government areas in Delta State.
We visited transition committee chairmen and traditional rulers. Stakeholders and political parties were all there and what we got from them was something we had to ponder about.
Akpoyoma Ogbe
There were some local government areas in which we were told some stories that were quite alarming. Some claimed never to have seen ballot papers or ballot boxes during elections conducted in the past by the State Independent Electoral Commission and that results were just announced without voting.
We assured them that this time, not only will they see ballot boxes and ballot papers they will also vote and that by God’s grace their votes will count. In doing this, we were also conscious of the sensitive nature of the state. We also discovered that our people are yearning for good elections through which they can choose their own leaders.
On preparations
We had all these in hindsight we started making preparations for the elections. One of the areas that bedeviled the conduct of credible elections in the past was the type and quality of persons used as ad-hoc staff. The commission just has about two hundred persons on its staff and on normal election days we require more than 10,000 persons to conduct the elections.
As such there is the need to engage supporting persons from outside as ad-hoc staff. For that purpose we placed adverts and immediately the adverts appeared, certain persons came forward complaining that the conditions we were giving were somewhat on the high side. But we were quick to inform them that this time, it was not going to be an all comers affair. Delta State has qualified persons, experienced persons, credible persons who would be able to conduct credible elections.
Requirements for credible polls
We need just about 25 persons to work as returning officers. We require persons in the hierarchy of senior lecturers in our universities and of course some full-time practicing priests, certainly not just someone who establishes a small place and claims to be the founder. We require credible clergymen.
We also met with the leadership and the entire council of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Delta State chapter. The state chairman of CAN warned that there are a few money minded pastors but that they would take their time to select credible men of God for us. At that point we felt comfortable that we are on the right track.
Elections conducted by state independent electoral commissions are often viewed as stage-managed. To what extent will DISEC puncture that notion?
I must say that since May 2013, we have taken all decisions independently. One of the areas in which people expected that the government or the party in power would be in a position to tell us what to do, was in fixing a date for the elections. If you will recall, there were various speculations as to the date for the elections. Some said the date had already been predetermined by the governor. Some said June, some said July, and some said August. But when we addressed the political parties in March, we agreed for October and everybody was surprised. The truth is that our enabling law gives us the power to fix the date. In other climes it is otherwise. It was only after we had, on our own, independently fixed the date that we formally wrote to the governor notifying him of our decision. Not only has the governor refrained from dictating to us in any way, he has at the same time accorded us all requisite assistance and necessary support required for delivering on the commission’s assignment.
What mechanisms have you put in place to ensure that votes count?
Definitely it will be impossible for us within the commission to be at every single polling unit to ascertain what is actually going on. As to our supporting ad-hoc staff, it is both our hope and our appeal that people should be above board. Given that we will be engaging dedicated men of God and seasoned academicians for the exercise, it is our hope that persons so engaged will maintain their names, maintain their reputation and maintain their integrity.
Life is not all about today and a reputation built over many years should not be mortgaged on the altar of election malpractices. As for those who decide to do otherwise by compromising the integrity of the process, I can assure Deltans that the law is there and that the law will take its course.
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