80 die in Kogi road carnage

By Adeola Tukuru

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that the flaws detected during the Anambra state governorship election indicate that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under Prof. Maurice Iwu is incapable of conducting free and fair elections nationwide.

President of the union, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, in a statement issued yesterday, said INEC must acknowledge that there were fundamental flaws in the process and conduct of the election, adding that the mix ups in the voters register led to the disenfranchisement of many voters.

Omar stated that aside this flaw, the election was marred by the late arrival of polling materials and in some instances, the complete absence of electoral officials.

“We must not therefore be carried away by the relative success recorded in the Anambra election because these noticeable flaws are fundamental to laying a strong foundation for the growth of democracy,” he said.

According to him, the relative success recorded in Anambra is because the election was an isolated one where over 45, 000 personnel, made of INEC officials, security agents and election observers from civil society groups and international organisations were drafted for the poll.

“One wonders how INEC can cope with 36 states to conduct the elections of not only the President but governors, Senators, House of Representatives members and state Houses of Assembly members, all about the same time.

“INEC certainly needs to be repositioned with a competent and credible leadership before 2011 if we are to avert a worse disaster greater than what was experienced in 2007. This means that INEC under Prof. Iwu lacks the vision and the capacity to conduct a trouble-free election,” the NLC president lamented.

He however commended Vice President Goodluck Jonathan for not approaching the election as a PDP member or in a do-or-die manner as was the case in the past.