From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Less than two years to the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has continued to perfect arrangements towards ensuring that the series of inconclusive elections which characterised its previous polls did not repeat itself.
Recently, the electoral body unfolded strategies that would ensure conduct of conclusive, free, fair and credible 2019 polls. And it has continued to drum it to the ears of the stakeholders at every opportunity it has that it meant business.
From the periodic consultative meetings with major and minor stakeholders including the media, political parties, security agencies, election monitoring groups and civil society organisations among others, INEC remains consistent with its message of readiness to do away with inclusive tendencies.
Smarting from the criticisms that trailed the declaration of the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States and other staggered elections as inconclusive, the series of arrangements are understandably necessary.
Although INEC had battled strenuously to convince Nigerians that it deserves encomiums with the court’s nullification of just only one out of the over 167 elections conducted under Prof Yakubu Mahmood’s watch, the stint of doubts over its competent and ability to conduct credible elections has persisted.
Speaking during the Commission’s first quarterly meeting with the media in Abuja recently, Prof Yakubu had argued that the level at which the validity of elections conducted under his watch were upheld in the court of law was another plus for the Commission.
“We have so far conducted 167 elections, and only one has so far been nullified by the court. We will continue to do what we do courageously, maybe when we are not here, somebody will say the Commission has done very well,’’ Yakubu said.
The Commission had further argued that though it had also been accused of conducting inconclusive elections, over 75 of the elections conducted by the current administration were concluded at first ballot.
It insisted that the elections declared inconclusive were done in line with the rules and regulations guiding the conduct of elections.
Warning that INEC would not lower the bar in the conduct of credible elections, Prof Yakubu noted: “We are conscious of our responsibilities and we are going to proceed as we have been doing.”
Furthermore, in an attempt to absolve the Commission of any complicity, the INEC boss had hinged several electoral problems on the desperation of the politicians, accusing the political parties of nominating ex-convicts, certificates forgers through the party primaries to contest.
While reacting to the stakeholders’ appeal to the Commission to do more in monitoring the primaries conducted by the political parties, the INEC boss said: “On monitoring party primaries and ensuring that what transpired is transmitted to the Commission, we can only appeal to the political parties to respect their own party primaries.”
He said further that: “According to the Electoral Act, if the party’s national headquarters submits the name of a candidate, the Commission has no power to change it. Are there problems in such action, yes there are problems, are there consequences, yes, there are consequences.
“In most cases, we have no option than to rerun the election at great consequences and expenses to the nation. Some of the candidates nominated ought not to be nominated if the party had followed due diligence. We will never have problem that we have in the elections nullified on account of their lack of diligence.
“It is only in the party primaries that the ex-convicts that are not qualified under the law are nominated. We saw in this country, where some parties recommended ex-convicts to contest election but INEC has no power to reject, only for court to nullify such election.
“We have in some cases, where certificate forgers contested elections only for court to nullify the election based on such. The parties must have a mechanism to ensure that what transpires at the party primaries is a reflection of genuineness of thoroughly screened candidate and what is submitted to the Commission,” he said.
However, determined not to leave anything to chance in changing public perceptions concerning its capabilities to conduct credible election, the Commission had undertaken a number of measures towards ensuring that it did not record any case of inconclusive poll in 2019.
Some of the measures taken so far include conducting Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) to enhance more voters’ participation in the 2019 elections, the registration of more political parties, rolling out elections timetable, training and retraining of personnel and wide consultations with stakeholders.
Continuous Voter Registration The Commission in its resolve to check any inconclusive poll in 2019 earmarked the sum of over N463 million to conduct continuous registration of voters in the manner prescribed by the Electoral Act, the first time in the history of elections in Nigeria.
Speaking during a retreat on mid-quarter review of CVR held in Kaduna recently, Prof Yakubu had disclosed that the Commission considered three options before settling for the less financially-involving option of executing it through the INEC Local Government Area (LGA) offices.
According to him; “This is the first time in the history of elections in Nigeria that INEC is embarking on a continuous registration of voters in the manner prescribed by the Electoral Act.”
“Although Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act empowers the Commission to determine registration centres and notify the public what is the best method for achieving the goal of making the exercise both continuous and accessible, the Commission considered three options: Polling Unit (PU) level, Registration Area (RA) or Ward level, INEC Local Government Area (LGA) offices or such other places as may be determined by the Commission. A comparative analysis of the options showed that while the indicative cost of Pulling Unit is N137.467 billion, the cost of Registration Area is N21.030 billion, the INEC LGA offices is N463.227 million.
“The Commission decided to commence the exercise at LGA level based on the following considerations; the provision for CVR in the Commission’s 2017 budget is N1, 216,346,068 for all VR activities, including off-season elections that have become regular since the 2015 General Election. The LGA level is the only affordable option that can be accommodated within the current budgetary allocation,” he noted.
Giving further update on the exercise which started in April 27, 2017, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, had disclosed that over 954, 001 Nigerians have been registered within eight weeks.
“As at the end of the eight weeks of the exercise, the Commission had registered over 954, 001 Nigerians; it also considered a number of challenges the exercise faced and decided to deploy 300 additional DDCMs to some of the existing centres to ease congestion, as well as create new centres in areas with special needs.
“So far, 31,808 persons have collected their PVCs while 34, 560 others applied for transfer of Polling Units. Due to budgetary constraints, the Commission cannot for now decentralise to the Registration Area level. However, due considerations shall be given to certain areas with peculiar challenges.
“In view of the Anambra State governorship election scheduled for November 17, 2017, the CVR will be decentralised to the Registration Area (Ward) level from August 10 to 16, 2017. The same consideration shall be given to Ekiti and Osun States which have governorship elections in 2018,” the Commission noted.
Registration of new political parties
As at the middle of June this year, the number of political associations that applied for INEC’s registration stood at 103. However, rising from weekly meeting of the National Commissioners recently, the Commission announced the registration of five new political parties that met the criteria and constitutional requirements.
Already presented with certificates of registration to contest any election organised by INEC, are: Young Progressive Party (YPP), Advanced People’s Democratic Alliance (APDA), New Generation Party of Nigeria (NGP), All Democratic Peoples Movement (ADPM) and Action Democratic Party (ADP), adding that with the registration of the new parties, there are now 45 political parties in Nigria.
Timetable for the 2019 general elections
To match words with action, the Commission in February this year, rolled out timetable for the 2019 general elections, two years ahead of the poll, fixing the Presidential and National Assembly elections for Saturday, February 16, 2019 and the Governorship and State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council elections for Saturday, March 2, 2019.
The Commission, further noted that to ensure certainty in dates for political parties, security agencies, candidates and all stakeholders, it has fixed the date for the National Elections for the third Saturday in February of the election year, followed by State elections two weeks later.
Wielding the big stick against fraudulent staff
In collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Commission has not only investigated the culpability of its staff in the electoral fraud that characterized the 2015 general elections but also instituted legal actions against them. To serve as deterrent and check future occurrence, INEC had confirmed and resumed prosecution of its 202 indicted staff that allegedly benefitted from N23 billion bribery facilitated by a former Minister in the last administration, ahead of the 2015 general elections.
Announcing the stiff sanctions taken against the indicted staff ranging from suspension, slash of salary among others, the Commission said it spent about four months to thoroughly investigate all the allegations contained in the interim report it received from the anti-graft agency, before reaching a final decision.
While urging the EFCC to prosecute any of its staff if it has sufficient evidence, the Commission’s boss quipped: “If we get our elections right, we will get our democracy right; and if we get our democracy right, we will attain real development as a nation.”
While lauding the Commission for cooperating with the anti-graft agency in the cases involving its staff, EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu revealed that the partnership has already started yielding positive results with the commencement of the prosecution of the staff.
“It is a crime against humanity. We are already prosecuting some INEC staff in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Gombe States. In the future, before we take any such case to court, we will inform INEC and share details of the Charge Sheet with you. And if you have anybody in your Legal Department that wants to join our prosecution team, such persons are welcome. This will add value to the work,” he noted.
Political parties react
Despite some misgivings trailing the Commission’s orchestrated arrangements, it has gained the approval of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), the umbrella association for all the political parties in Nigeria,
Endorsing the Commission’s actions in a communiqué recently, IPAC’s National Deputy Chairman, Dr. Onwubuya Breakforth, said that they believe the initiatives would engender certainty in the country’s election calendar.
“We endorsed the timetable for the 2019 general elections and also welcome the assurance by INEC for nationwide CVR at local government level. IPAC also pledged to fully support the Commission in the registration of new voters and creating further public awareness in the distribution of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
“All the political parties in the meeting renewed commitments to internal democracy and affirm commitment to non-violence in elections. We commend INEC’s effort to prosecute electoral offenders and acknowledged that appropriate sanction was the most effective panacea to electoral violence. This should be expanded to include all violators of the Electoral Act, no matter how highly placed,” IPAC noted.