How PDP, INEC, Security Agents Systematically Rigged The Election -ACN
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- Category: April 2011 Polls
- Published on Friday, 22 April 2011 04:17
- Written by Admin
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THE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described last Saturday’s presidential election as the most systematically rigged in the nation’s history. It warned against any attempt to repeat "such malfeasance" in Tuesday’s governorship/state assembly polls.
"The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been boasting that it will clinch the governorship election in Lagos and elsewhere on the strength of the result of the presidential election, but we must warn strongly that a repeat of the crooked strategy that spewed out those cooked figures will have consequences that no one has yet imagined,’’ the party said in a statement issued in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
It said the PDP planned to massively rig the governorship and state assembly elections, especially in areas where President Goodluck Jonathan scored victories, so as to give the world the impression that the result of the presidential election was not a fluke.
The statement said: "President Jonathan should call his dogs of war at the PDP to order so that they will not push their luck by attempting to thwart the will of the people any more than they have already done, with the grim consequences that we all can now see.’’
‘’What the PDP did last Saturday was simple: They colluded with security agents and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials to cook figures, which have now turned out to be their undoing, because the cooking was not intelligently carried out.
‘’An analysis of the results put out by INEC itself has shown a troubling pattern of clear manipulation. Everywhere the PDP perceived it was strong, it came out with incredibly high numbers of voters in its favour. Conversely, anywhere the opposition was perceived to be strong, the opposition’s margin of victory was unreasonably low.
‘’A few examples will suffice: In the Southsouth and Southeast, where President Jonathan is believed to have strong support, the average turnout was 67 per cent each of registered voters, compared to 32 per cent for the Southwest where he is believed to have a strong opposition. In the Northwest and Northeast, which is considered a bastion of opposition in the North, the average turnout of registered voters was 54 per cent.
‘’And whereas high voter turnout was recorded in states perceived to be sympathetic to President Jonathan in the different geopolitical zones (Bayelsa in Southsouth 85%, Imo in Southeast 84per cent, and Plateau in Northcentral (62 per cent), the opposite was the case for areas where the opposition was believed to be strong. Even in Katsina, Buhari’s hometown, the turnout was a paltry 52 per cent. Ditto for Kano (53%); Sokoto (40 per cent) and Zamfara (51 per cent).
‘’It is also instructive that even though Edo State is in the Southsouth, the turnout was only 37 per cent, apparently since the state was not believed - by the figure cooks - to be sympathetic to President Jonathan, being controlled by the ACN. The turnout figures for the Southwest are also revealing: Lagos (31.8 per cent); Ogun (28 per cent); Osun (39 per cent) and Oyo (33 per cent).
Also, while the margin of victory for the PDP in the Southsouth is 98% and for the Southeast 98.9 per cent, the highest margin of victory for the CPC in the Northwest, where Buhari comes from, is 55.8 per cent,’’ ACN said.
The party said when the ballot papers are subjected to forensic analysis, as they definitely will, the world will realise that what appeared to be free and fair election at the polling units was a mere façade.
It slammed observers for rushing to tell the world that the whole election was free, fair and credible, whereas they were busy playing to the gallery in urban centres while the PDP colluded with INEC and security officials in the hinterland to concoct figures that are only real in their imagination.
‘’We wonder if those who have been rushing to congratulate President Jonathan would still do so, if they are aware of the analysis to which the election figures have been subjected. We hope they are not acting more out of their concern for the continuous flow of the black gold than for the growth of genuine democracy in Nigeria,’’ ACN said.
