BY tomorrow, electorate in Ondo would have started casting their votes for a replacement for incumbent governor, Olusegun Mimiko whose eight year tenure is now drawing to a close. No doubt, the build up to the election has been quite dramatic. The two major parties in the country have been the partakers in the drama.

Though a governorship election, it has a far reaching consequences on what would likely happen in the South west as 2019 general election draws nearer. In the All Progressives Congress (APC), the election is seen as a battle between one of the most astute politicians in the country today, former Lagos governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his former proteges, former Lagos state governor and Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, former Ekiti state governor and Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Kayode Fayemi, former Rivers governor and Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi and a host of others who have taken on the party leader and the man who is credited to have singlehandedly ensured the Mohammadu Buhari presidency. The story of the APC’s primary which threw up its governorship candidate, former Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) president, Rotimi Akeredolu against the preferred choice of Asiwaju Tinubu need no retelling. The controversy generated made it clear all has not been well in the APC.

No less dramatic is the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s internal crisis which pitched  two aspirants, Eyitayo Jegede and Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim against each other. Though the case has since been decided in favour of Jegede on Wednesday by the Court of Appeal, less than four days to the election, the outcome has left a sour taste in the mouth.

The internal crisis in the PDP was needless and actually left the party vulnerable in the coming election. Instead of focusing on its campaign, it had to suspend everything to pursue the court cases, thus giving advantage to the other contenders in the race.

There are also strong suspicion about the role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the crisis. Though the electoral body covered its base quite well by citing court order in the substitution of candidates, it fails to convince that it does not harbour a hidden agenda.

Its action has indirectly emasculated the PDP, while other parties and candidates in the election were busy campaigning, the same could not be said of the PDP as it had to resolve its self inflicted problem. The electoral umpire, however did not do too well by ignoring the call to postpone the election in order to give a level playing field to all the parties and the candidates.

In spite of calls to postpone the election which was in its power to do, INEC refused, thus lending credence to the suspicion that some powerful interests were behind the removal and substitution of Jegede’s name, in order to destabilize Gov Olusegun Mimiko- backed candidate and the PDP’s formidable political machinery in Ondo. Mimiko is said to have done well in Ondo and his candidate would have taken a stroll into the government house. Some have opined that since the PDP crisis was self-inflicted, it would be unfair to postpone the election. But this argument does not fly. At the height of the crisis, about 20 political parties had called on INEC to postpone the election.

The parties are participants in the election and if they felt the fair things  to do was to postpone the election in order to assure a level playing field for the the parties, INEC should have considered the request.

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INEC does not conduct election for its own sake or because it felt it was the thing to do, it conducts elections and acts as umpire because of the political  parties. It exists because of the political parties. If the political parties are saying you should shift the election, then it behoves on the electoral body to consider the request.

INEC’s job is that of an umpire which is defined as that person who is chosen to arbitrate between two contending parties, so what’s the fairness in rejecting the plea of one party to the advantage of another? In the build up to the return of democracy in 1999, I recall that INEC bent backward to register the Alliance for Democracy (AD) which was almost not meeting the criteria for registration, due to the exigencies of the time, the party had to be registered. That is the hallmark of a thinking organisation that wanted to ensure fairness to all parties.

INEC at the time realized it was the best thing to do in order not to promote or create unnecessary crisis. INEC of today does not seem to consider that, thus lending credence to the accusation that the electoral umpire is acting out a script.

More so, INEC would not be doing anything new or strange if it had decided to postpone the election. It postponed the governorship election in Edo state by two weeks and heavens did not fall, though the accusation then was that INEC’s ploy then was to confer advantage to one of the parties.

It had done the same in Bayelsa and it had equally put the Rivers state  by-election on indefinite postponement until the Senate’s ultimatum that it should conduct the election latest by December 10.

But the die is cast. INEC in its wisdom has ruled that the election must go on. One can only wish the people of Ondo the best in the election. They should conduct themselves in an orderly manner and most importantly shame the agenda setters, whether hidden or open by voting the party that would continue to give them the best of the dividends of democracy.

They should also go to the polls with the thought at the back of their mind that not all changes bring the expected ends.