NBA polls: Gadzama Campaign Organisation protest secret collation of results
(Nigeria) The Chief K.J Gadzama, SAN, Campaign Organisation, has protested the secret collation of result in the on-going nationwide internet voting in the National elections of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA.
The Campaign Organisation which submitted a protest letter
to the Electoral Committee of the NBA at its national secretariat in Abuja on Sunday, said, “You may recall that we had written a number of letters
expressing grave and growing concerns about the NBA national elections. We are
constrained to write again in view of the fact that some of these concerns were
either completely ignored or inadequately addressed.
"We refer specifically to our previous letters of
the June 25, July 15 and July, 20 2016. All of these letters and their various
attachments were received by the Nigerian Bar Association as shown by their
endorsements. Please find copies of these letters attached for ease of
reference.
“We wish to now draw your attention to some very important
concerns. Our agents have been in the NBA National Secretariat for the past 40
hours. All they have monitored in all those 40 hours is nothing more than the
names of those voting and the branches from which they voted. We do not think
this is meaningful at all.
“The whole point of a voting process is the outcome. It is of
utmost importance therefore, that the process leading to that outcome is seen
by all to be clear and credible. A situation where our agents cannot see the
results accruing to candidates as they come is simply wrong. Secret collation
has never been healthy for any true democratic process. Yet secret collation is
apparently what is going on.
“Another concern is that it was only around midnight on
Saturday that our agents were informed for the very first time of the total
number of accredited voters. This is despite the fact the accreditation had
been on for several days, yet no
information was given until last night. And even then the Chairman, we
understand read out the following figures to the team of agents and ECNBA
members present: .Total number of lawyers eligible to vote- 24,305’Total number
of eligible lawyers who updated their records- 11,646 and total number of
updated lawyers accredited to vote-6,932.
“We wish to place on record that regardless of whatever
arguments about protecting the security of the Electoral body or preventing
political manoeuvring, it is not right that results are collated secretly and
agents prevented from seeing the scores of their candidates as votes are
returned. This has defeated the very essence of having an agent to monitor the
process.
“Finally, there is the issue of what appears to be wholesale
disenfranchisement of branches. For instance, we gather that in Badagry and
Ile-Ife branches, a large number of updated lawyers either did not receive any
email with accreditation link or the link received did not function at all and
all complaints were went unheeded and ultimately unresolved. We attach relevant
correspondence from some affected branches.
“We trust that you will ensure that the obvious gaps created
by the secret collation, as well as the late announcement of total votes cast
and total number of accredited voters are not exploited. We also hope you that
you will ensure that the integrity of the entire process is not compromised as
a result of the failure to resolve issues around accreditation of updated
lawyers.
“In view of the foregoing, we hereby demand that the system
be opened up to enable the agents of all candidates in this election (including
ours) to view and monitor the votes scored by each of the candidates as they
come in since this is the final collation.”
Comments
Post a Comment