Good and ugly sides of Bayelsa guber election

THAT Saturday’s governorship elec­tion in Bayelsa State is not over yet is no more news. At the moment, a clear winner is yet to emerge even though the results in seven of the eight lo­cal governments of the oil-rich state have been officially announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Like what happened in Kogi State, the Bayelsa election was declared inconclusive even though the candi­date of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Seriake Dickson was leading in six of the seven states declared by the INEC. Before the cancellation of polls in Southern Ijaw, Governor Dickson who polled 105,748 votes, was leading his clos­est rival, Chief Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 72,594 votes with 33,154 votes.

However, Southern Ijaw is strate­gic to the major candidates because according to the INEC updated regis­ter for the 2015 election in the state, there are 120,827 registered voters in the Local Government.

Already, results from seven coun­cils – Sagbama, Yenagoa, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Brass, Ekeremor, Nembe and Ogbia had been announced and so far, Dickson won in all the coun­cils apart from Brass, which went to Sylva.

But the electoral umpire declared the election inconclusive based on reports of violence, abduction of electoral officials and ballot box snatching, in Southern Ijaw local government area with the highest number of votes in the state.

From reports gathered on the field, the electoral agency felt that what happened in Southern Ijaw was a negation of global best practices in election conduct, hence, the cancel­lation of the process.

For many, especially those on ground in Bayelsa last Saturday, the election lived up to its billing. Figu­ratively, Bayelsa was on fire as the election was like a precursor to Ar­mageddon.

So many issues trailed the elec­tion. Daily Sun in this diary captures a few of the highlights.

Friday Night, Dec 4

The night before the election was one of activities and it was like all the residents of Bayelsa emptied into the streets. Even though the deadline for campaigns had elapsed, many poli­ticians moved round the state obvi­ously to make last minute efforts to woo the voters.

It was a night of strategic thinking as many converged in groups usu­ally discussing in hushed tones with some intermittently shouting at one another.

Security

Never in the history of Bayelsa has it witnessed the presence of se­curity personnel including the Army, Police, officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps among others like it did in Saturday’s election.

From available records, at least 14,000 Policemen were deployed for the election to ensure that Bayelsans voted freely for the candidate of their choice. However, even with the level of security presence, there was still fear in many quarters that there was going to be breakdown of law and order. The fear was so much among the residents of Bayelsa that some parents obviously made sure that their wards never came out during the exercise.

Militants as power brokers

It may sound unbelievable but the reality is that any politician seeking elective office in Bayelsa ignores the militants at his own peril. The belief in many quarters is that even though the militants may not have voter cards, they could determine the out­come of the election to a large extent.

In some parts of the state, there were reports of shooting with the speculation that it was being orches­trated by militants to scare voters who may likely support certain candidates against their (militants) interests.

Politics of Hotel accommodation

As insignificant as it may seem, securing accommodation was one of the weapons used by the contend­ing forces to gain some advantages over opponents. Daily Sun gathered that many of those who run Hotels in different parts of the state particu­larly Yenagoa were approached long before the election to ensure that enough accommodation was secured for supporters of the leading can­didates in last Saturday’s election. Daily Sun gathered that the fare for the accommodation also went up.

Boats as political tools

Believe it or not, the more boats any of the candidates was able to se­cure, the more of his chances in the governorship election. The reason for this is obvious as a large percentage of Bayelsa is covered by various wa­ter bodies.

Daily Sun gathered that ahead of the election, the supporters of the two leading candidates battled to outwit one another in the procurement and hiring of all manner of boats and fer­ries to aid their movement. The spec­ulation in many quarters in the state was that whoever had more boats would likely win the election in the riverine areas.

Defections

In the build up to the election and particularly on the night before the poll, there were stories that so many top politicians in the state were jumping ship in anticipation of the outcome of the poll. The speculation was that many of the APC supporters had defected to the PDP. Daily Sun got a text message purportedly from former Director General of NDDC, Timi Alaibe stating thus: “Fellow Bayelsans, after a careful consider­ation of current events and sustained persuasion from notable Ijaw leaders and my followers, I hereby ask all my supporters and all Bayelsans to vote for Gov Seriake Dickson of PDP to continue with his restoration agenda of Bayelsa”.

Cash for votes

Daily Sun observed that cash freely and openly exchanged hands during the elections. Many of the voters were reluctant to vote until their palms were greased. Some who spoke to Daily Sun said that elec­tions provided the best opportunity to make money. The money given to the voters by the parties varied from poll­ing unit to the other. For some units, the amount was as big as N4000 but for others, it could be as low as N2000.

But in all, many of the voters most­ly youths had a field day trying to go from one polling unit to the other to maximize the opportunity.

Battle for Southern Ijaw

For those conversant with South­ern Ijaw, it was going to be a battle­field considering that it is the local government with the highest number of voters in the state. Daily Sun gath­ered that in previous elections, the Southern Ijaw remained critical. And apart from being prone to violence, the area has a difficult terrain which makes it difficult for the INEC to de­ploy logistics there.

It was gathered that since 1999, it has remained the stronghold of the PDP as it had always garnered at least 80 per cent of the votes in the area.

On Saturday, when news filtered in that election could not hold there, the camp of Governor Dickson was in disarray as many believed that Southern Ijaw would be easily won by the PDP.

When the INEC shifted the elec­tion to Sunday, supporters of the gov­ernor were not comfortable as they believed that adequate security mea­sures had not been made to secure voters there.

As it turned out eventually, the INEC could not get its acts together on Sunday with the election starting late and voting continuing through­out the night. The atmosphere in the state as the night wore on was charged with all kinds of news filter­ing in.

While the APC wanted the results of the Sunday election in Southern Ijaw to be declared, the PDP called for total cancellation so that adequate security could be made to ensure a credible exercise. It seemed that good reason prevailed and INEC postponed the exercise marred by so many irregularities.

Daily Sun gathered that in spite of the deployment of soldiers to the area, attempts to conduct the polls on Sunday met an impregnable wall, forcing the INEC to again, cancel the rescheduled exercise in the riverine area over widespread violence, ballot box snatching and hostage taking of electoral officials.

The state Resident Electoral Com­missioner, Baritor Kpagih, who took the decision in Yenagoa, said a new date for a fresh poll in the area would be announced in due course.

His words: “You will recall that the Commission conducted governor­ship election on December 5, 2015. The Commission announced that the polls shall be continued in some lo­cal governments including Southern Ijaw Local Government Area on De­cember 6, 2015.

“The results of the elections in all the Local Government Areas except Southern Ijaw have been collated.

“Reports of the election conducted on December 6, 2015 in Southern Ijaw LGA reveals that the election was substantially marred by vio­lence, ballot box snatching, hostage taking of electoral officials including reports from political parties, observ­ers — local and foreign — among others.

“This falls short of internationally accepted standards for credible elec­tion. Consequently, the Commission has decided in the interest of the in­tegrity of the commission to cancel the election in Southern Ijaw. A new date for the conduct of the election in Southern Ijaw LGA will be an­nounced in due course.”