The rights of incarcerated criminals to vote, despite their inability to be voted for, has been a touchy subject across the world with strong arguments existing on both sides of the matter and Nigerian courts have just waded into the matter.
Adding to the debate, the Court of Appeal in Benin city, Edo state has granted an appeal to persuade the nation’s election monitoring agency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to include Nigerians serving time in the voter register ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The tricky part, however, comes in the form of a refusal by the court to declare a liaison between the INEC and the prisons regulatory body, the Nigerian Prison Service, especially in the area of setting up registration centers within prisons across the country.
The appeal was granted by Justice S. Oseji on behalf of Justice Helen Ogunwumju on Friday, the 7th of December, with Oseji noting that the ruling could be appealed further by the appellant.
Representing the appellant, President Aigbokhan of the Initiative for Rural Development, Information and Legal Advocacy (IRDILA), while asking for the registration process to begin in earnest ahead of the February polls, also expressed a strong desire to appeal some parts of the ruling.
Requesting for polls to be located across prisons, Aigbokhan said: “Our clients are inmates in prisons. We believe they have a right to vote in an election so as to decide those who ultimately decide their future.”
In 48 American states and 7 European countries, including Great Britain, prisoners are expressly forbidden from partaking in elections, with some states and countries withholding that right even after they’re released. This is especially true in almost 10 American States, with the exception of Florida where the bill was recently amended.
Prisons are essentially set up to reform deviants before they’re integrated back into the society and many have argued that banning their right to vote makes that difficult.
On the other side of the coin, is INEC ready to take this on for the 2019 polls? A lot more goes into voting than just casting ballots, and it is safe to assume that INEC is not equipped to take this on, less than 100 days to the next elections. Are the inmates informed? How fast can INEC properly educate them on the process and their options to avoid voter manipulations?
With inadequate living and feeding conditions, experts have opined that it would serve the prisoners more if focus is placed on their welfare. As this case proceeds, it is important to ask, is INEC able to take on the challenge of integrating prisoners into the voting system before February, when they could barely accomplish this for Nigerians running wild and free? Or is the electoral about to spread itself thin?
