Anambra Election: Police Intercept Electoral Materials

The Nigerian police yesterday intercepted a trailer load of election materials purportedly belonging to the Independent Electoral Commission at Ihiala, Anambra State, along the Onitsha-Owerri Road on its way to an undisclosed destination in the state three weeks before the February 6 gubernatorial elections.

But the driver of another truck suspected also to have been carrying similar materials escaped with his vehicle from the same scene, eyewitnesses have said.

Eyewitnesses said the discovery was made possible as a result of an accident with a commercial vehicle, following which an argument ensued and led to the discovery that the trucks were being driven by two people who claimed to be soldiers.  

The men who had already passed a police checkpoint claimed to be moving with the container-laden trucks to Port Harcourt.
It was when the policemen at the checkpoint came to investigate the cause of the accident that one of the drivers fled with one container while the police held the other.

On close examination, the police discovered that the reddish trailer with Lagos state registration number XS139AKD was filled to the brim with cartons of electoral materials. The materials included ballot papers, ballot boxes and election result sheets.
THISDAY enquiries confirmed that the truck belongs to the Kline Group of Companies with company registration number KKFU728486.

A former member of the House of Representatives in the state is said to have been linked to the two trucks.
The arrested driver of the impounded truck was discovered to be a university student. But he was detained by the police who said he was helping them with investigations. 

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Philemon Leha was said to be attending the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebrations when reporters called at his office.

But a police officer who spoke on the issue said the truck and its contents had been moved to the Divisional Police Station in Ihiala Local Government Area, and would soon be moved to Awka.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra State, Mr. Uwazuruonye Josiah was also said to have gone out on an official assignment and could not be reached for comment.

The Public Relations Officer of INEC in Awka when contacted refused to speak and directed reporters to the Administrative Secretary, Mr. Tony Agbache who said he knew nothing of the impounded container.
Also, investigations at INEC’s headquarters in Abuja hit a brick wall as the electoral body disowned the impounded cargo.
When contacted, a deputy director in the Public Affairs Department of INEC said he was not aware of any seizure of electoral materials.

He said neither the director of Public affairs nor his logistics counterpart was in the picture of the arrest of the truck and its contents.
He however, promised to get back once he was through with his own investigations. When THISDAY called again, his phone rang several times but was not answered.

INEC has fixed February 6 for the conduct of the Anambra gubernatorial election. In the build up to the polls, there have been several claims of plans to rig by the different camps of contenders.
At a point, the Inspector General of Police had to summon all the 25 contestants to his office and cautioned them to guard against the possible outbreak of chaos in the politically volatile state. 

Reacting to the incident, the chairman of the Soludo Campaign Organisation, Chief Okey Muo-Aroh, said it was now left for INEC to claim or deny the ownership of the container(s) and its contents.
He said, “It also portends a very dangerous development that container loads of election materials will be floating about in Anambra 21 days to the governorship election. 

“If security documents can be treated this shabbily, one wonders the credibility of what we are about to do and the outcome of the exercise.
“We urge the commission to make a public statement on the incident and also reassure us that the process would be free and fair.”

The director of the Uche Ekwunife Campaign Organisation of the Progressive Peoples Alliance, Mr. C. J. Chinwuba said: “we commend the security operatives for their vigilance and we condemn such acts aimed at rigging this election.
“We in PPA have laboured extensively, visiting the 177 communities and the 326 electoral wards in Anambra State, yet some set of mischievous people are busy trying to rig this election.

“We in the PPA and the entire Anambra State have insisted that the votes must count.”
The governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu said Anambra people have suffered enough from electoral fraud perpetuated by enemies of democracy, and urged the police and other law enforcement agencies to save the state from the evil machinations of miscreants.

elections

Wikipedia:Articles on elections

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This is an information page, and describes communal consensus on some aspect of Wikipedia norms and practices. However, it is not a policy or guideline.

Wikipedia has many conventions that have emerged for election coverage. These have reached enough maturity that some very good examples can be identified.

Contents [hide] 1 For U.S. President 2 For other single-winner elections 3 For parliaments 4 Aftermath 5 Controversy 6 Bogus 7 Boring 8 Best practices and hazards

[edit] For U.S. President

Wikipedia:Style_for_U.S._presidential_election,_yyyy deals specifically with that type of election. Much of what follows still applies:

• U.S. presidential election, 2012 shows how to cover a predicted future electoral event that is almost universally believed to be inevitable; the focus should not be on "what might cause it" (as a constitution causes it) but on the candidates.

[edit] For other single-winner elections

Mayors and Governors and other Presidents are elected also in single-winner elections that require similar documentation to US President races. Focus is on the candidates, ultimately, in such elections.

[edit] For parliaments

Very different rules and standards apply for elections in parliamentary systems which are often hard to anticipate, and where there is not such a focus on personalities:
An upcoming election is a future event and no matter what polls or press say, it does not have a predetermined outcome. In some cases rumours about what might happen can bias the outcome, and this is something Wikipedia literally never wants to be accused of. Try to follow the good examples of how to do this fairly:

• The UK general election, 2005 coverage as of the day of its announcement shows exactly how complete coverage should be, when the event is widely anticipated - note that there are a great many disclaimers and requests for more information
• 41st Canadian federal election shows how to cover a predicted future electoral event that may not happen at all - the focus should be on what might make it happen, or not, and the consequences of that decision, not on the mechanics or candidates except insofar as their bios and more general articles should be linked

[edit] Aftermath

An election so strictly defined in law and practice and terminology that it can be documented very completely. After the event, a very complete article will be written, and any predicted effects or the timeline of the election can then be moved to a separate article as the actual effects are described in the article, that is now about the past event:
Worldwide, most elections are for a parliament along the British model. One good example of a recent parliamentary election showing all the best practices is:

• Canadian federal election, 2004, timeline of the Canadian federal election, 2004, results of the Canadian federal election, 2004 and the awe-inspiring results of the Canadian federal election, 2004: All on one page, Canadian federal election, 2004 map gallery show how complete the documentation should be after the fact. Anything you can do to get the documentation in its final form early, will save much time right after the election where the demand is high for the results, quick.

[edit] Controversy

Many elections are controversial. Here's some guidance about that:

• ROC presidential election, 2004 is a Taiwan election; Note that Mainland China, unlike most neighbouring countries, takes very specific positions on what should happen in Taiwan, and what party or leader - the one who most favours the one China policy - should be elected.
• U.S. presidential election, 2004
• Canada and the 2004 U.S. presidential election also makes note of the especially close relationship between the US and Canada, and the fact that Canadians are polled on which US president they would prefer; One Canadian ambassador to the US, in 2000, even stated a preference for Al Gore! This makes the Canada-US situation even more important, as there are often Canadians expressing opinions on US politics.
  • 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy and irregularities and its subpages, including
    • 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy, vote suppression
  • George W. Bush shows how to cover a candidate that has been through many controversies
• 11 March, 2004 Madrid attacks shows how to cover an event that is widely believed to have affected an election outcome
• Russian presidential election, 2004 shows how to cover an exceptionally one-sided, but not universally condemned, election
• Iraqi legislative election, 2005 shows how to cover an election where a major faction or party boycotts the vote, where the legitimacy of the process is also questioned, and where there is need to report extreme and frequent violence or threats of same at polling places or in the runup to the election;

[edit] Bogus

Elections where electoral fraud is widely reported are not reported as elections at all, but, typically, as part of the biography of the incumbent political leader or "party" or faction that rigs the election, or, as part of an article on the final outcome, if the result overturns a government, as in Ukraine in 2004 and Kyrgystan in 2005.

[edit] Boring

There are also nice boring good examples, like

• British Columbia general election, 2005 shows how to cover a large number of minor parties, not all which of which are actually running.
• Alberta general election, 2004 shows how to cover an election in a smaller political unit than a whole country, but which is not a municipal election.

[edit] Best practices and hazards

A few best practices and hazards can also be identified:

• Neutral point of view is always important, but just before an election it is important to update pages and watch for any systemic bias due to one party or faction or another being over-represented in the overall edit stream
• Swing state covers a US-federal-election-specific term that changes. The definition and examples will require updating before each US election.