Following the suspension of the Ekiti East state constituency election over reports of violence, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it was too early to speculate on when the election would hold given the level of violence. The election, which held on March 20, left four people dead, including a policewoman, while some others sustained injuries.
Asked when the election would hold, Okoye said, “Innocent voters died. A policewoman on electoral duty died. Innocent persons were injured. Fear and apprehension were created in the minds of the voters and electoral personnel. The indefinite suspension of the election led to loss of resources expended in the conduct of the election and tension has yet to abate.
“It is too early to speculate on when the election will hold. Families are still in mourning and our condolences to the families of all those who lost loved ones during the election. We also wish those that sustained various degrees of injuries quick recovery.
“The commission will meet at an opportune time to review the conduct of the election and take a decision on the way forward. But it is too early in the day to talk about going back to conduct the election. Going back now will send a dangerous signal to the effect that those who died are expendable commodities and do not matter.”
Asked what INEC thought was the best way to curtail the excesses of politicians who frustrate the peaceful conduct of elections, he said the commission was in support of the creation of Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal to handle the issue of arrest, investigation and prosecution of electoral offenders.
…Commission to release activities for 2023 elections soon
About two years into the conduct of the 2023 general elections, Okoye said the commission would soon release the timetable and schedule of activities.
The INEC chairman had said in October 2020 that presidential election would hold on February 18, 2023. But Okoye said in the interview, “We are getting ready for the 2023 general elections and the commission will soon release the timetable and schedule of activities for the election. The political parties are already aware of the exact date for the 2023 election.”
…faulty party primaries, forged certificate fuelling bye-elections
The commission has however expressed worry that flawed primaries by political parties and nomination of candidates were making the commission to incur cost when the courts order for fresh elections.
The INEC chairman had in 2018 described the primaries held by parties in 2018 ahead of the 2019 elections as the most acrimonious in the history of the country.
Okoye however said, “The biggest challenge at the moment is that most of the bye-elections that the commission is grappling with arose as a result of the opaque nature of some of the party primaries and the nomination of candidates with qualification baggage.
“Political Parties must be thorough and avoid manipulative tendencies in the screening and choice of their candidates. It is inconceivable that political parties still overlook aspirants with questionable credentials and sponsor them and the commission is forced to go back and conduct elections when the courts declare them as not qualified to contest the election.”
He said an amendment of the law as being proposed would increase substantially the penalty for nominating unqualified candidates and the commission would be in a good stead to prosecute the political parties and the aspirants and candidates involved.
While assuring Nigerians that printing of sensitive electoral materials would be accorded the required tact, he said the commission engaged companies and factories locally and internationally that met the requirements for the production of sensitive electoral materials.
“Our ballot papers are printed to currency standards with complicated security features and the movement of our ballot papers and result sheets enjoy the same security movement like the national currency,” he added. “The commission adopted the restricted and direct procurement methods for the 2019 general elections.
Speaking to concerns over the decline in the use of card readers, Okoye said the Smart Card Reader remained the commission’s flagship in verification and authentication. “However, our new enrolment device will obviate the few challenges experienced in the Smart Card Reader technology,” he added.
On the ongoing revalidation of the voters register and creation of additional polling units, Okoye said the commission was almost concluding the inclusive consultations aimed at creating a broad and nationwide consensus on the conversion of voting points to full-fledged polling units.
He added, “We are gearing up for the implementation of the policy at the local governments and the states. We are already producing maps from our GIS laboratory that will give us factual location of polling units and voting points and the picture of served and unserved areas.
“We will engage the stakeholders at the base level relating to the best places to locate the new polling units that will emerge from voting points. When we begin the continuous voters’ registration, new and some old registrants will have new polling units closer to them.”
He noted that as soon as the commission was done with the expansion, it would begin the continuous voter registration exercise. “The expansion of polling units, the pandemic, procurement of new equipment and new gadgets in a pandemic as well as dwindling government resources will no doubt affect our timing. But we are determined to give the Nigerian people a good electoral roll as soon as we resume.”