LESS than 28 per cent of registered voters participated in the just-concluded Bayelsa state governorship election held on Saturday, November 11, which produced the incumbent governor, Douye Diri, as the winner.
The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) data shows 1,056,862 registered voters in the state, while 1,017,613 among those registered collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
However, based on the results announced by local government area collation officers during the collation of results in Yenagoa, the state capital, only 209,809 votes were recorded across the state. This is about 27.5 percent of total registered voters.
It also accounts for only about 28.5 per cent of residents who collected their PVCs before the elections.
While several factors were responsible for the low voter turnout in the state, voting apathy has been a recurring challenge in Nigeria. The country is ranked second on the list of nations with low voter participation globally, performing even worse than Afghanistan and Libya, both war-torn countries.
Ahead of the Bayelsa poll, a civil society organisation, Yiaga Africa, predicted low voter turnout in the state for several reasons, including threats of pre-election violence and citizens’ distrust of the electoral process.
The ICIR also reported that some residents expressed anxiety over the possible outbreak of violence in the state during the exercise. However, many were determined to vote, including Gideon Ezekome, a trader at the Swali Market, Yenagoa local government area.
“The way things are now, everywhere is peaceful. I pray that everything will go smoothly with the security personnel I am seeing in this area. I will come out fully and cast my vote no matter what,” he said.
Hundreds of women gathered at the Police headquarters in Yenagoa, the state capital, two days before the elections, staging a protest to demand a peaceful poll.
“We want everywhere to be cool so we can vote well for our candidates. What we want is peace,” a protester, Janet John, told The ICIR.
However, on election day, Bayelsa state Governor Douye Diri, who contested under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), blamed members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), including the governorship candidate Timipre Silva and his running mate, Joshua Maciver, for inciting violence in some parts of the state and preventing residents from voting.
“Our agents have been stopped from going into Nembe. Our party has written an official letter to the chairman of INEC, and INEC has to take drastic action to ensure that our people are allowed to go in there and vote.
“Even in Nembe Bassambri, the name and the character behind what is happening is Timipre Silva. Timipre Silva has been a violent person in every election. You will also recall that his deputy governorship candidate in Twon Brass threatened the people of Twon Brass that if any of our party members came, they should be thrown into the Atlantic Ocean and that they were not the first people to die. You will agree that that pair is a violent pair, and that’s not what the people of Bayelsa deserve,” he said.
Ahead of the elections, Nigerians had criticised Maciver for inciting people during campaigns in Twon Brass, urging his supporters to attack opposition supporters.
“On the 11th, don’t joke with anybody. If anybody misbehaves in Twon Brass, chase them away into the sea so they can die. Did you hear? Chase him so he can die. After all, he won’t be the first person to die. This time around, when we take it (governorship), we are taking it for final,” he said in pidgin, a corrupted version of the English Language.
During the collation of results, one accord party agent, identified as Victor, alleged that a riot erupted in the Brass LGA, which claimed the life of another party agent.
He blamed the death on Maciver’s threat. His allegation at the collation centre resulted in an altercation between him and the APC agents.
The altercation degenerated into a physical combat, which security officials controlled almost immediately.
In certain parts of Bayelsa, including Sagbama and Kolokuma/Opokuma LGAs, The ICIR observed that party members provided voters with refreshments and money and, in some cases, followed voters to the polling booths, monitoring as they cast their votes.
Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested suspected vote buyers in Otueke, Bayelsa state, retrieving at least N9.3 million from the suspects.
The ICIR also reports that the collation of election results in Bayelsa took much longer than in Imo and Kogi, the two other states where off-cycle elections took place on Saturday, November 11, despite having the least number of LGAs.
The collation process was adjourned about five times by the INEC returning officer, mostly because many LGA results were not ready for presentation.
While the PDP gathered 175,196 votes, the highest in the election, and APC followed as its closest rival with 110,108, the Labour Party (LP) emerged as a distant third, polling only 905 votes.
The LP’s governorship candidate, Udengs Eradiri, lost his polling unit to Diri, despite the party’s impressive performance at the 2023 general elections held in February and March.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.