By Richard Ihediwa
After weeks of anxiety, President Goodluck Jonathan last Friday signed the 2010 Electoral Act into law thus setting the table for a new electoral process, which is widely believed, will to a large extent guarantee free, fair and credible elections in 2011.
As the President was signing the new Electoral Act, all the money needed for the prosecution of the processes for the polls was already in the account of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) having been released after the signing of the N87.7 billion supplementary budget for the preparation for the elections by the President on Tuesday last week.
With these development, critics believe that the race has started and for Nigerians it is the beginning of a short but tense journey as events of the next four months will ultimately redefine and restructure the power equation in the country.
But what took the President so long to sign the two critical laws weeks after they were passed by the legislature? The question is more germane especially when seen against the backdrop of the fact that the two bills were executive bills and passed with very little adjustments. In the case of the budget, the legislature merely rubber-stamped the provisions as presented by the President.
Based on this, many expected the President to give speedy acceleration to the bill, but this was not to be a he was said to have been under intense pressure from very influential politicians who are not happy with the provisions of the new Electoral Act as well as the proposed fresh voters' register.
Jonathan had to sign the law after a wider consultation which followed last Wednesday’s alarms raised by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega who told the world that the Presidency was frustrating the electoral process by delaying signing the Electoral Act and the election budget.
However with the signing of the Act on Friday, the 2011 elections will hold in January and on the stringent terms specified by the law.
Election watchers believe that if the new Electoral Act and the voters' registration are adequately implemented, the country will have credible elections in January.
This is because while the budget holds the key for a credible voter register, the Electoral Act has fundamental clauses providing for more democratic process beginning from party primaries to the general elections.
Many politicians are not happy about the laws as they closed loopholes for electoral malpractices.
With the Electoral Act giving INEC up to 60 days before the election instead of the 120 days under the old law, the electoral body is armed with ample time to compile a fresh register that will eliminate the inadequacies of the old one which was marred by multiple registration and other factors that encourage rigging.
With the release of the N87 billion, INEC is expected to procure and deploy 120, 000 units of Direct Data Capture Machines (DDCM) to all the 120,000 polling units in the country against the 30,000 used in 2007. The deployment of machines to all the units will eliminate the problems of congestion and delays in registrations which are usually exploited by politicians to manipulate the process.
For the first time in contemporary history, the Electoral Act has deliberate provisions aimed to fetter and whittle the powers of political godfathers and other election manipulators through key provisions including, principally the prohibition of consensus candidates for elections.
Under the old law, candidates can emerge after special meetings by party chieftains controlled by the godfathers. This is seen as the beginning of rigging as candidates that emerge do not represent the decision of the people.
However, in the new law, candidates for all positions can only emerge strictly through elective primaries. It provided strictly for compulsory balloting at primary elections with prescription that only aspirants with the highest number of votes cast will be forwarded to INEC as candidates.
Under the new law, such candidates cannot be substituted and can only be withdrawn in the case of death or willing withdrawal by the candidates in writing.
Providing for a more democratic primary election process, the new law barred the participation of political appointees as voting delegates at primaries. Delegates can only emerge among those directly elected by ballot by party members beginning at the ward levels.
The implication of this is that political godfathers including those presently in offices can no longer use their aides and appointees to harvest votes at primaries. For instance with the new law, the President has lost over 2,000 delegates which would have comprise of his ministers, advisers, assistants, members of boards of federal agencies, ambassadors and other appointees within and outside the country.
The new law also eliminates the use of court injunctions to stop primaries. When a legal action is launched against the primary election or its outcome, the process cannot be halted by the court until the determination of the suit.
To prevent incidents of electoral disputes getting protracted, the new law prescribes the holding of elections in January, four months to handover to the new government so that most disputes would be dispensed with before the swearing-in of the new official.
It also limits spending by candidates for the election. Presidential candidates cannot spend more than N1 billion; governorship candidates has a ceiling of N200million. Senatorial candidates are limited to N40 million, members of House of Representatives and house of assembly members have a ceiling of N10million.
In a bid to check violence in the 2011 general elections, the new Electoral Act also outlawed the formation of groups or organizations by candidates and political parties to assist in campaigns and gave INEC more powers to prosecute election offenders.
It also bars candidates and parties from employing religious and tribal slogans and sentiments in campaigns.
Section 95 (6) of the 2010 Electoral Act passed by both chambers of the National Assembly provides that "no party, person or candidate shall keep or use private security organization, vanguard or whatever other group or individual by whatever name called for the purpose of providing security, assisting or aiding the political party or candidate in whatever manner during campaigns, rallies, processions or elections".
The prohibited groups include vanguards assisting in campaigns other than the party on which platform the candidate is contesting as well as organizations providing security other than government security agencies and others approved by the law.
With this provision, groups such as the Jonathan Support Group and others being set up to assist in organizing campaigns and rallies for candidates may have to close shop.
While it is widely accepted that the new law has opened a new portal for credible elections in the country, critics argue that the law is impotent unless INEC summons the will to implement its provisions to the letter.
For Jega, the fireworks have started as he must play the umpire in a game that is dominated by master schemers and mercenaries who are seeking for all opportunities to circumvent the law and the system to their advantage. In fact Jega must learn to ride on the back of the tiger in a dangerous race with gladiators who seek to get him in the entrails of the predator.
Though the task is onerous, the INEC Chairman has been equip with all the weapons he demanded to prosecute the "war". He must be wary of politicians and must not allow them to break his will. Nigerians count on him and he has his enviable reputation at stake.
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