My first voting experience

ONE of the many teachings that I got from my late father is never to come home until what I have sought to accomplish on a specific day within the bounds of human frailties is achieved.

Saturday, March 28, 2015 therefore saw me wake up in high spirits and left the house at past seven in the morning for my polling booth in Port Harcourt for accreditation preparatory to casting my vote in the presidential election. Even when the Independent National Electoral Commission officials allocated to our centre stood us up, by not resuming for work until past 10am, I still could not leave for home because of my daddy’s advice and also since I did not want to miss the opportunity of my first voting experience.

You would have expected that I was the only person – who was there to vote for the first time, but so were many others – but I was enthralled by the presence of elderly persons, old enough to be my grandparents, they not only came out early but, stood (for there was no provision for seats) and, waited good-naturedly even without a place to rest their frame.

The awareness for this election was extraordinary. No one wanted to sit on the state line, this was visibly demonstrated at my polling unit where voters pliably conveyed their reservations against individuals and support for their preferences, against the electoral law and for me the major downsides were the presence of some rabble rousers who hoped that the card readers should not work so that, “our plans,” “will reach the summit.”(Emphasis mine). But they were reasonably asked by some voters to stop such kerfuffle that could be an incitement for trouble.

Unluckily for these gloomy elements, the card reader conveyed to my booth was picture-perfect, did not record any breakdown on any occasion and was so seamless that I deliberated on how it could have failed in other places within and outside Port Harcourt as reported in the media.

I was also taken aback at the goings on at the booth next to mine. This booth, long after we had been accredited did not start theirs not quite until at past 1pm caused by the INEC official and youth corps members both of whom brought the wrong machine to the station and upon discovery, the party agents – thereafter perorated the INEC official hours on end to drive back to the centre with the right machine – having driven off as soon as she dropped the wrong device, but she took forever and a day to come back, after originally submitting that – they came to pick it up from where she was. That was a tawdry riposte if you ask me mainly as her lack of attention caused the glitch.

My next displeasure was in the way the party agents in the booth next to mine conducted themselves. They never worked in sync to ensure a unified election. For instance, when the card reader was not brought on time, all but one of the party agents recommended to the youth corps member in charge that they should go ahead with manual accreditation. He amazingly assented to the idea but the agent of a party that isn’t a major contending party in our national politics stood up to fight for, ‘the rule of right.’

He advocated even though in a hostile way that the right thing must be done and the right thing would be that a card reader must first malfunction before manual accreditation could be done. He was spot on.

In this instance, the right card reader had not arrived and yet manual accreditation was suggested. In the end, the lone star had his way for the general good. It taught me a lesson: Stand for what is right always.

My centre fortunately did not witness any misfortune and I was more contented for it – being my first voting experience.

Was it worth it? I think it did and wished everyone had this unruffled experience all over the place like I did but unfortunately the report of ballot snatching, youth corps members beaten, some statesmen not being able to be accredited because of the absence of result sheets, with the state Resident Electoral Commissioner joining issues instead of educating such statesmen, elections cancelled and postponed in some wards, voting beginning at 6pm in some places, gave me a cause to worry.

Will Rivers State ever get its act right democratically? One can assume how hot-blooded the governorship election in this state will be on April 11.

Whatever happens, it is hoped that the outcome of these elections will usher in a type of democracy not witnessed before to lift us from the burden of privation and make life bearable for the deprived populace.

Even if my preferred candidate loses, I will stand tall, beat my chest and say, “Well done, Simon, for you are a man who did not behave like others to build a bulwark of ethnic, religious, and regional mawkishness around themselves in the choice of candidates but settled for one solely on principle and national interests; only the “deep calleth unto deep.”