Mimiko confirmed

…Re-elected Ondo gov gets certificate of return •Recommends staggered elections

From TUNDE RAHEEM Akure

Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko yesterday advocated a continuous voters registration exerise in Nigeria as away of preventing disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

The re-elected governor also advocated the application of staggered elections system by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as a panacea to electoral malpractice in the country. Mimiko made the suggestions while receiving his Certificate of Return (CoR) from INEC National Commissioner in charge of South West, Professor Lai Olurode in Akure.

“One critical element of success is these staggered elections. I am sure we did not deliberately craft it, but this has been crafted for us. It appeared God has decided to intervene in our electoral affairs through this. “I believe that our electoral umpire, INEC should now go to that and create a regimen of staggered elections for Nigeria. “From my experience in the elections that took place in Edo and Ondo states on these staggered elections option, it will probably be one credible solution to the challenges of electoral malpractices in Nigeria.”

Mimiko said INEC should work on ensuring that logos of political parties that were similar were not close to each other in the ballot papers in order to avoid having thousands of voided votes. While commending INEC for its increased level of commitment to having a credible electoral system, the governor expressed gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for delivering on his promise to provide security to secure our votes. In his address Olurode said:

“Though INEC is claiming to be perfect as there are bound to be challenges, the most important thing is to remove what remains of electoral malfeasance. He said INEC has zero tolerance for acts of indiscipline among its staffers, saying “only God knows the number of INEC officials that have been axed since 2011. Olurode who praised the over 40 per cent voters turnout as the highest so far, described the jubilation that greeted the declaration of the results as an evidence of transparent conduct of the poll.