Lagos – A former National Commissioner of INEC, Prof. Lai Olorode, says political parties, candidates, and security agents must collaborate to avert inconclusive governorship elections in Edo and Ondo.
The elections are scheduled to hold in Sept. 10 and Nov. 26 in Edo and Ondo states, respectively.
Olorode told The Nigerian Observer in Lagos on Monday that returning a candidate not duly elected by the majority of voters often fuelled electoral violence.
“There are two or three factors that account for inconclusive elections; and those three factors are not the making of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“They are the making of other stakeholders in the electoral process; one of the key factors is the instigation of violence either in the pre-election or on the day of election or in the post-election stage.
“When you go ahead to make a return on the basis of an election where a large number of people on the voters’ register had not been afforded the opportunity of casting their ballot, then you will be returning a minority candidate that was not in control of the majority of votes.
“You will be returning the person as elected and it will be a dangerous precedence because elections are about preference aggregation.
“They are about recruiting leaders on the basis of that leader is being able to command the majority of votes in a constituency whether at the State or federal level.
“It is a serious signal and presently it has the striking spectra of actually reversing the democratic being of the past 16 years if care is not taken.
“We have to just nip it in the bud and do everything possible.
“Stakeholders in the electoral process, political parties, the candidates, the security agents must make up their minds that they have to create an enabling environment that can secure the electoral process”.
