By Joy Odor
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has bemoaned that the continued nomination, substitution or disqualification of candidates after all the sensitive materials have been printed in compliance with court orders judgements within a short period of time is not only expensive but the management of the process is very challenging.
INEC Chairman stated this at a Consultative Meeting with Political Parties in Abuja on Tuesday ahead of next month’s off-cycle Governorship election in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states.
He explained that although the Commission has already published the final list of candidates for the three States, four recent court orders have compelled them to review the list.
According to him, these changes have been reflected in the updated list of parties and candidates on the website, noting that the decision is without prejudice to any pending appeal by the affected candidates or their political parties.
“Today, the subject matter of our meeting is the ongoing preparations for the three off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled to hold on Saturday 11th November 2023. With just a little over two weeks to the election, we are at the concluding stages of our preparations.
“This is the first time that the Commission will be conducting three off-cycle Governorship elections simultaneously across different geo-political zones. This is made possible by the coincidence of the end of tenure of the current holders of the offices which fall within the constitutional timeframe of not earlier than 150 days or later than 30 days before the expiration of their terms of office as enshrined in Section 178 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“The Commission has delivered all non-sensitive materials for the elections to the three States. The training of various categories of ad hoc staff is ongoing. We have made the soft copies of the complete register of voters available to all political parties participating in the elections.
“We conducted the mock accreditation of voters and the upload of results to our IReV portal using the BVAS. Stakeholder engagements are ongoing. Our State offices have concluded the readiness assessment of our facilities as well as the movement of critical facilities to our 56 Local Government offices across the three States.
“At the same time, political parties have uploaded the names of their polling and collation agents to the dedicated web portal. As I informed Nigerians at the meeting with our Resident Electoral Commissions (RECs) last week, a total of 137,934 agents made up of 130,093 polling and 7,841 collation agents have already been uploaded to the portal. However, not all the political parties have nominated agents for all the polling units and even the collation centres in the three States.
“In the next few days, the Commission will publish the detailed distribution of agents uploaded by all political parties for public information. I urge you to consider the submission of names of agents as important as the nomination of candidates for election.
” I am glad to report that the printing of agents’ identity cards will be completed this weekend. This will allow political parties ample time to distribute the cards to their agents. All the identity cards are QR Code-readable to ensure maximum security and to avoid impersonation by unaccredited persons”.
Pro Mahmood called on political parties and the Inter-Party Advisory Council, (IPAC) to promote peace and orderliness as the current state of insecurity in the Three States is of concern to the electoral body.
In his address, the IPAC Chairman Yagbagi Sani concerned that over 80% of the declared election results have had to be resolved through tribunals and court processes.
According to him, the ugly development is directly attributable to the quality of Agents representing Political Parties at the Polling Units and Collation Centers, adding that over the years, IPAC have seen the election processes abused, monetized, or brutally corrupted and the declared results being sharply disputed.
“These Agents are mostly poorly trained, easily compromised, or outright fraudsters, who in some instances would not submit to the party or the Candidate the Form EC8 issued by INEC and signed by all the relevant stakeholders at the conclusion of the exercise at the polling units.
“The ERMS will minimize or eliminate the menace of the Agents and other representatives of political parties in the process. For the first time, political parties will be guaranteed effective monitoring and control of the activities of their representatives and other stakeholders in the handling of the election results from the Polling Units, Collation Centers up to the declaration of results by INEC, the only authority, in line with the 2022 Electoral Act, with powers to announce winners of elections.
“The IPAC Situation Room ERMS would compliment current efforts by INEC to provide political parties certified Form EC8A copy of which are also pasted by INEC by the walls at the polling stations.
IPAC Chairman urges INEC to uphold the tenets of the democracy and work towards ensuring that the voice of the people is heard and respected through the ballot box.
He implored all political parties, civil society organizations, and all citizens to play their part in creating an environment that fosters trust and confidence in our electoral processes to ensure that the people’s will prevails and that our democracy continues to grow stronger.
