APC’s Hypocrisy On Supplementary Elections

By Nicholas Ikejiani

It is no longer news that the Anambra  governorship election has come and gone with the official declaration of Dr. Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as winner, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). But what is news is the continued campaigns, incendiary remarks and orchestrated misinformation of the public by the All Progressives Congress (APC), one of the political parties that participated in the election.

APC has been going about through its defeated candidate, Dr. Chris Ngige, the National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and indeed all its leaders, castigating the idea of supplementary elections as adopted by INEC in the Anambra Election.  They are claiming that supplementary elections “are alien and not known to our electoral laws” and on the basis of that, the election just held in Anambra that saw APGA clinch victory be cancelled.

We understand that Ngige and his party, APC, have already filed a petition against the conduct of the governorship election in Anambra about a week ago.  While it is within their rights to challenge the result of the election, it is pertinent to draw public attention to the obvious hypocrisy of APC with regards to the issue of supplementary elections.

First, the 2013 Anambra governorship election is not the first time that INEC has adopted the use of supplementary election after an inconclusive first round of elections.  If we can recall, in the 2010 Ekiti governorship election, INEC used supplementary election to determine the eventual winner, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of APC.

In the 2011 General Elections, supplementary election was also conducted in the Anambra Central Senatorial Election wherein the same Ngige narrowly defeated the APGA candidate and former minister of information, Professor Dora Akunyili; and, finally in the 2011 Imo State governorship election, Rochas Okorocha also of APC needed a supplementary election to defeat the incumbent governor and PDP candidate, Ikedi Ohakim.

In fact, in the case of Okorocha, he was reported to have gone to court to stop the supplementary election but when the result favoured him, nobody could tell how the matter was withdrawn!  In all of these cases, the beneficiaries of supplementary elections were all candidates of APC. Strangely though, APC or the party it was called then congratulated INEC for doing the right thing with supplementary elections.

Why have supplementary elections now suddenly turned undemocratic and unconstitutional? Is it because another party other than APC has won?

APC is fast building a great name for itself as a party of very desperate politicians, hypocrites and sour losers.  Democracy cannot be the best system of government only when you are winning.  It is important for APC to understand that in defeat, democracy is still the best form of government.

What are APC and its candidate in the Anambra governorship election, Dr. Chris Ngige waiting for?  It is time they called to congratulate Willie Obiano and his party, APGA, on their victory rather complaining about the constitutionality of supplementary elections!

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Written By Nicholas Ikejiani
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