Ahead of the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State, CDD War Room has been beaming the searchlight on two important demography of actors. These actors form an integral part of the democratic and electoral process in the state and the country at large. They are the people living with disabilities (PWD) and the least prominent political parties.
People Living With Disabilities (PWDs)
Of the 17 candidates and their deputies released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), none lives with a disability or impairment. Albeit, there is a huge number of voters living with disabilities and are willing to exercise their civic duties. With a few months to the Edo governorship election, there has been a renewed call on INEC to prioritize people living with disabilities.
Last year, before the 2023 Gubernatorial and State Assembly election, the People Living with Disabilities called on INEC to provide assistive devices to aid the voting process. This call came after a torturous encounter while voting in the last presidential election. They also called INEC to make the EC40H form available to help record the number of PWD voting in the election.
Ahead of the September 2024 Edo governorship election, two germane issues still linger amongst the people living with disabilities. The first is for INEC to provide assistive devices, which would ease the mobility of disabled voters, sign language interpreters, descriptive posters, magnifying glasses, and braille ballots.
The second issue is for the INEC to mandate the use of the EC40H to properly document persons living with a disability on election day. Over the years, People living with disabilities have decried the incompetence of INEC Adhoc staff in using the form EC40H, which is mostly available across polling units. It is therefore expedient for INEC to train its staff on the use of the EC40H form ahead of the election for proper documentation of PWDs.
Other Political Parties
Of the 17 parties, candidates, and their deputies released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), only three have dominated the spotlight and are touted as the ‘prominent political parties.” They are the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Labour Party (LP), and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Based on news headlines and engagement, the less prominent political parties ahead of the governorship election in Edo are Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Accord Party (AP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), All People Movement (APM), All Peoples Party (APP), Boot Party (BP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), People Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
A flashback shows that all democratically elected governors in Edo state vied on the platform of the prominent parties, starting from Odigie Oyegun, the flagbearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1992. The SDP is now considered a less prominent party with slimmer chances of winning the governorship election.
In 1999, after the return to democracy, Lucky Igbinedion became the governor, having contested as the flagbearer of the PDP, succeeded by Oserheimen Osunbor of the same party. Osunbor was removed as governor by a court judgment invalidating the conduct of the election.
Adam Oshiomole emerged as the governor in November 2008 under the platform of the Action Congress (AC) or Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which has now merged with other parties to form the APC. Adams Oshiomole sought re-election under APC and won his re-election.
In November 2016, Godwin Obaseki vied under the APC platform to succeed Oshiomole. He eventually defected to the PDP, another prominent political party, and won his reelection.
With few months to the end of his tenure as a democratically elected governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki is expected to hand over to a freshand.
The analysis of the historical events (above) since 1999 showed that candidates of prominent political parties have always governed Edo state. Either the incumbent wins re-election or the major opposition upsets the incumbent. Ahead of the September 2024 governorship election, the CDD War Room found that the prominent parties have grown from two to three. This development shows more competitiveness in the race and we expect full campaign activity across the three parties.
Disinformation as a Weapon against Less Prominent Parties
Over the years, there is barely an election process cycle in Nigeria where a candidate does not step down for another candidate of another political party. This recurring pattern has become an avenue for “bad actors” and disinformation peddlers to peddle narratives, which could end up confusing the voters.
One popular narrative, which mostly trends a few hours before the election, is that a candidate or candidates of less prominent parties have stepped down for one of the frontline candidates. Since this “step-down” procedure has characterized our electoral process, bad actors now capitalize on it to spread misleading and false narratives. For instance, two gubernatorial aspirants in the PDP primary election in Edo state stepped down for another aspirant. Something similar happened in the APC when two aspirants, having been cleared to contest, withdrew their candidacy. This buttresses the prevalent “step down” narrative from the internal party elections to the general elections.
The impact is the loss of trust in these less prominent parties as people now hold the notion that no matter how hard a candidate of a less prominent party strives, they will/may eventually step down. Another impact is voter apathy where people lose interest in the entire electoral process because most times, the candidate whom others are stepping down for, will most likely emerge.
Conclusion
Disinformation thrives primarily on narratives that have existed in the past or are expected to regenerate. This notion largely supports the “step down” narrative, which has done more harm than good to candidates vieing under the umbrella of less prominent parties. Therefore, these parties must stay ahead of this trend by giving frequent updates about their candidates and maintaining the resolve that they are still in the race. If a candidate eventually decides to step down, it should be done in line with the constitutional provision and the Electoral Act (as amended), which stipulates the number of days (to the election) for a candidate to withdraw their nomination or step down. As many as they are, all parties have a fair chance on the ballot, maximizing the choices of the electorates.
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