Two candidates that contested to be representatives of the Senate on the selection committee for the appointment of Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan have protested against the process and outcome of the election held last Monday to elect senate representatives.
In separate letters to Nde Joshua Waklek, Chairman, University of Ibadan Council and Pro-Chancellor, Prof. Ademola Dasylva, of the Department of English and Prof. Adesoji Fasanmade of the Department of Physiology, stated that the election of senate representatives was fraught with irregularities.
Dasylva stated that the election and its outcome is a far cry from a credible exercise, but a parody and travesty of an election process, demanding that it should be rejected in totality. He justified his position, by saying that there was no record of valid nominations nor display of names duly presented to the Senate and the University community.
“As part of the rules governing electoral process, at the close of nominations, the names of contestants, their proposers, and seconders, are usually made available to the electorates and to the general public.
“At a formal meeting between the contestants and the electoral committee held on Friday, September 18, 2020, we pointed out this anomaly. The Registrar acknowledged the omission, apologised, and promised to publish the valid nominations before the election. This was not done, making the nominations to be shrouded in secrecy and the process to be technically flawed and invalidated, ab initio.”
He added that the platform for the e-voting was also compromised and manipulated. “To be sure, there were two windows associated with the platform. One was meant to display the cumulative votes, while the other was to display the actual votes accrued to each of the contestants. At the beginning of the voting exercise, a request was made for the open display of the voting process, namely the two windows, for close public viewing to ensure transparency. Unfortunately, this was not done.
“Instead, the tellers were given a link through which they could check vote counts. What was accessible through the link was the first window, which displayed the cumulative votes, denying the tellers access to the second window which should display the actual votes accruing to each of the contestants, being the main reason the tellers were there in the first instance.”
Similar arguments were what Prof Fasanmade put up in calling for the cancellation of the election.
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