Some lawyers have expressed mixed feelings to the 2016 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) general election which some described as a sham and others credible, free and fair.
Mr Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) emerged as NBA National President-Elect in the maiden Internet voting system.
He defeated Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN).
Gadzama’s FCT Campaign Manager, Mr Emmanuel Oluwabiyi, said in Abuja that a lot of voters were disenfranchised.
Oluwabiyi said that the names of many voters were not captured in the voter register, adding that most lawyers could not log into the portal during the poll
He said he had filed a protest letter to the NBA to the effect the none of them understood the procedure used in the election.
The campaign manager said the novel Internet voting was not transparent because the election was shrouded in secrecy.
He said “a situation where our agents cannot see the results accruing to the candidates as they come is simply wrong.
“Secret collation has never been healthy for any democratic process. Secret collation is apparently what happened.
“We are lawyers. We are supposed to know what is right and do what is right for other people to learn from us,’’ Oluwabiyi said.
A state counsel in the Ministry of Justice who preferred anonymity corroborated Oluwabiyi’s views.
He declared that the election was marred by irregularities.
He said many lawyers were disenfranchised and lot of votes cancelled on flimsy excuses of inability to remember passwords.
“If somebody did not remember his password, how can he then vote and the number recorded and then you cancel the number?’’
He said that the cancellation of votes was fatal to the election, stressing that he got the record of cancelled votes from NBA
He said the NBA was not ready for electronic voting. “We are not yet there! We are not yet developed to the stage of voting electronically.’’
He alleged that the first choice of using electronic voting itself was to disenfranchise lawyers because it was a structured plan to rig the election.
But another lawyer, Mr Boulevard Aladetoyinbo, described the election as a historic feat.
“Internet voting and electronic voting means the same thing, internet voting works by electronic means, he said.
Aladetoyinbo said that disenfranchisement was different from rigging, adding that disenfranchisement was quite different from rigging or irregularities.’’
He said the configuration was simple for any voter to familiarise with, noting “you even had the opportunity to go through candidates profile before you vote”.
He said that the result was released within an interval of an hour and thirty minutes, adding that there was no rigging
Also, Mr Iniobong Utuk said the election was a huge success, noting that the NBA had successfully organised its maiden electronic voting election.
Utuk said the election was free and fair, and pointed out that it was normal in a democratic process for the aggrieved party to reject the result.
On the poll being in conformity with NBA constitution, Utuk opined that law did not look at 100 per cent compliance.
“It looks at 50 or above per cent compliance because that is a pass mark.”
