By Adeola Akinremi
I noticed the FEDECO elections firsthand, and what I keep in mind most is the limitless ready by voters on the polling stations. Voters waited. Officials waited. Whole communities waited for election supplies that had been at all times on their approach and by no means appeared to reach. The frustration was actual, and it had little to do with politics. It was about logistics.
More than 4 a long time later, Nigeria has repeatedly rebranded its electoral administration establishment – from FEC to FEDECO, NEC, NECON and finally INEC. Yet, regardless of the adjustments in names, buildings and administrations, the underlying issues of electoral credibility, transparency and integrity stay stubbornly persistent. The identify has modified; the issue has not.
Today, Nigeria is a far bigger nation. It has greater than 176,000 polling items, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it plans to deploy about 1.4 million advert hoc employees for the following basic election. Yet the previous grievance has outlived the previous fee. Election supplies nonetheless arrive late in too many locations, and each late arrival raises the identical uncomfortable query: whose vote was misplaced to the clock?
To his credit score, the INEC chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, has mentioned as a lot. In October, he inaugurated an Electoral Logistics Committee for the 2027 elections and declared that no Nigerian must be disenfranchised as a result of supplies got here late. He has additionally argued that an election is just as sturdy as its logistics. With the polls lower than three months away, the fee has time to reply another severe query. It is the one I need to put this week.
How can an election administration physique assure that each vote is collected, protected, transported and counted on time, no matter how distant or troublesome the group is to achieve?
That is the burning query on my thoughts for this version. Riverine communities within the Niger Delta, island settlements, rural roads that fail within the rains, insecurity and sheer distance all complicate the motion of individuals and supplies. An reply, or no less than the define of 1, got here from an unlikely place on November 3, through the American midterm elections.
In Los Angeles County, the Sheriff’s Department deployed eight helicopters, touchdown at seven helipads, to gather sealed poll containers from locations comparable to Lancaster, Palmdale and Van Nuys and fly them to the county’s central processing facility within the City of Industry. LAist, a information group in Los Angeles reported that officers needed to chop transport delays and to keep away from giving communities nearer to the centre a bonus within the timing of early outcomes.
The helicopters are the seen a part of a partnership between the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, which runs elections, and the Sheriff’s Department, which provides transport and safety. The relationship itself is an previous partnership. A 2012 report by electionline Weekly quoted a Registrar’s official saying the Sheriff’s Department had supported poll transport from Catalina Island for greater than 30 years, by boat or by plane relying on the climate. The election workplace selected the tactic. The Sheriff confirmed it three weeks earlier than polling day.
The custody guidelines matter as a lot because the plane. Ballot containers are sealed and their contents recorded earlier than they transfer. Departure occasions and container numbers are communicated forward to the processing centre, and the numbers are checked once more on arrival. No one is left alone with ballots or gear.
Two issues stand out. First, the election authority by no means surrendered its authority. The Sheriff supplies a functionality; the Registrar retains the ballots, the method and the rely. Second, the system doesn’t rely on one mode of transport. Fog has diverted poll helicopters in previous Los Angeles elections, and floor routes carried on. Redundancy is a part of the design. I discovered no proof of a single countywide settlement governing all of this. What is documented is a long-running operational partnership with clearly outlined roles, which is a extra helpful factor to repeat than a doc.
Los Angeles will not be an outlier. In Hawaii, Maui County organized constitution flights with Kamaka Air to deliver ballots from Molokai and Lnai, with sealed containers, signed handovers and election officers on board. The flights are procured upfront, not improvised on election evening. In Arizona, Coconino County moved ballots out of Supai, the Havasupai village on the backside of the Grand Canyon, by mule prepare, with riders from each main events. In Ohio, the Erie County elections board, the Sheriff’s Office and the US Coast Guard share the job of bringing ballots again from Kelleys Island on Lake Erie, with seals checked and every switch recorded within the presence of representatives of each events.
Sky, canyon and lake. Three geographies, three completely different automobiles, one design: standing relationships with different public businesses, specialised transport deliberate upfront, and documented custody at each handover. That is the precept, and it travels. Nigeria no extra wants helicopters for the Niger Delta than Arizona wanted them for the Grand Canyon. It wants the structure, with the transport matched to the terrain.
Here is what I’m not saying. I’m not asking INEC to study from America. I’m asking it to complete what it has already began.
INEC’s personal evaluate of the 2023 basic election recognized transportation, procurement, reverse logistics and safety as areas needing enchancment. The fee introduced the National Union of Road Transport Workers, the National Association of Road Transport Owners and the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria into the dialog. Its suggestions had been particular: revise the memoranda of understanding with transport unions to take care of car situation, driver management and the return of supplies; work with the Federal Road Safety Corps on roadworthiness checks; implement contractual penalties when suppliers fail; and strengthen supervision of transport agreements on the native authorities degree. European Union observers, for their half, listed late deployment among the many weaknesses of 2023.
These should not an outsider’s ideas. They are INEC’s personal findings. The query is whether or not they have turn into standing follow or remained entries in a report. A advice will not be a reform, and a reform will not be a follow till it has been budgeted, assigned and examined underneath strain.
The new Electoral Logistics Committee and the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security give INEC a pure dwelling for the work. What is lacking is a proper framework that makes cooperation predictable. Call it an Election Logistics Partnership Framework, resting on 4 necessities.
First, written agreements that outline who does what: INEC for planning and custody of supplies; the Police for safety; the Road Safety Corps for roadworthiness; maritime businesses and boat operators for waterways; transport unions and operators for automobiles and drivers; emergency businesses for contingencies. Second, advance planning. Classify each polling unit by accessibility, match transport to terrain, contract it early and rehearse it.
Third, a typical chain-of-custody document for each motion of delicate supplies, with a novel reference quantity, container rely, seal numbers, occasions of departure and arrival, and the names and signatures of the releasing and receiving officers, plus a proper incident report for any damaged seal or unexplained delay. Fourth, public reporting and an impartial post-election evaluate, in order that failures are counted as rigorously as votes.
A phrase of warning. In Nigeria, the involvement of safety businesses in dealing with election supplies will at all times increase questions of neutrality, and rightly so. The American examples should not be learn as an argument for giving safety businesses extra energy over elections. In Los Angeles, the Sheriff strikes the ballots; he doesn’t rely them. In Nigeria, INEC officers should stay accountable for supplies all through. Security personnel should defend with out taking impartial custody. Party brokers and accredited observers ought to be capable of witness the related handovers. And sooner transport isn’t any substitute for clear collation and well timed publication of outcomes.
INEC doesn’t want to purchase helicopters or import American procedures. It must take its personal findings, give them budgets, homeowners and deadlines, and construct the partnerships that make them routine.
At the top of the day, democracy is measured not solely by the correct to solid a vote, however by a rustic’s capability to guard that vote and convey it dwelling.
Adeola Akinremi is a public coverage advisor, strategic communications professional, and the founder and CEO of Hintells, an AI-powered intelligence platform serving companies and diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C. He has in depth multilateral expertise advising on governance, financial and coverage reforms throughout world markets and may be reached at: adeola@hintells.com
