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Tuesday 11 March 2014

INEC Warns Against Politicians Breaching Electoral Laws In The Country

Chat212 - Mail Summary...
  • INEC said it had begun compiling names of politicians breaching electoral laws in the country.
  • Jega said that it  was wrong for any politician to campaign for votes now since no party had conducted its primaries.
  • He urged such politicians to change their attitude and respect the rules of the game.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday said it had begun compiling names of politicians breaching electoral laws in the country.

It said that  information on such politicians was  being passed on to security agencies for necessary action.

The commission’s Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, made this known  during an interactive session with   editors  in Lagos.

Jega, who again warned politicians  violating electioneering rules  ahead of 2015 polls, noted that   all  the registered political parties  were also  guilty.

The News Agency of Nigeria quoted Jega as saying that it  was wrong for any politician   to   campaign  for votes  now  since no party had    conducted  its primaries.

“When you say vote for me for this office in 2015, it is wrong because there is no platform. This can only happen when primaries have been conducted,’’ he added.

The INEC chief  however said that  parties  were free to hold their  rallies as long as they did  not campaign for votes for the 2015 elections.

Although he was confident  that  the 2015 polls would  surpass  the previous ones,  he expressed  worry  over the  behaviour  of some stakeholders, especially politicians.

He urged such politicians to change their attitude and respect the rules of the game.

Jega said that the commission   had substantially “placed square pegs in square holes’’ to ensure improvement in future elections.

“We have told our members of staff that anyone who does anything wrong will have himself or herself to blame,’’ the nation’s chief electoral officer stated.

He said that    INEC had   intensified training for its permanent and ad hoc staff to make them more proficient and   improved the integrity of the biometric register.

“We have cleaned the register. It now compares favourably with any electronic register anywhere in the world,’’  the commission’s boss  added.

Jega disclosed that  the polling units in the country would increase from  120, 000  to 150,000.

He explained that INEC  decided to  increase the units  because some of them had  as many as 3,000 voters,  a situation that  “ is not ideal.”

“It should be an average size of 500 voters per unit,’’ the INEC chief said, stressing that the 2015  elections would not hold in one day.

Jega  said,  ‘’We did elections for three days in 2011,  starting with the presidential, then the National Assembly and governorship/Houses of Assembly. In 2015, we  have reduced the number of election days to two, beginning with the presidential/National Assembly  and followed by the governorship/Houses of Assembly.

“We cannot do the elections in a day. To try it will be inviting more challenges to the system. Doing the elections in one day will mean deploying five different ballot boxes and ballot papers. We will also have to give illiterates too five different ballot papers.

“Logistics will be too enormous. Instead of moving materials for a particular election, we will be moving materials for all the elections. It will be cumbersome. It is impossible to do it in a day because  it will be challenging.

“We decided to hold it in two days. We decided to hold the presidential/National Assembly elections  the same day and the governorship/Houses of Assembly the same day. We tried to be rational and logical in fixing the dates.”

INEC has also  adopted  some security devices that can check multiple registrations, Jega said, adding that ballot papers and result sheets would  be numbered to make it possible for its  officials  to account for them.

He said  that INEC lacked the capacity to prosecute  those behind the over one million cases of multiple registrations in its records.

This, according to Jega, was “why we recommended the setting up of electoral offences tribunals in line with Justice (Muhammadu) Uwais’ recommendations.’’

He also explained  that the permanent voter cards  being  introduced by INEC  were chip-based and contained details of individuals which could be screened by card readers at polling units.

 The INEC chairman  said voter registration  would continue before the 2015 polls and the forthcoming governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti states.

Jega defended the  conduct of the   Anambra governorship election, saying it was    not as bad as  it was  portrayed in some quarters.

On  the call by some stakeholders that the 2015 polls should  hold   in one day, he said Nigeria was not ripe for it.

Jega also  said  that INEC  had yet to register the Unity Party of Nigeria because there were some unresolved leadership issues in the  group.

He equally refuted claims that the African Peoples Congress  was not registered     because of the All Progressives Congress.

The African Peoples Congress,  according to him,    did not meet the requirements for the registration of  new parties and hence its non-registration.

“After looking at the documents of the African Peoples Congress, it was duly informed on why it could not be registered. APC met all requirements for merger. INEC was guided by the law in whatever it did. Anybody who feels otherwise can go to court,” Jega  said.

When asked if  he was not worried that the  outcome of the   National Conference  could affect INEC’s plans,  he  replied, “We will cross the bridge when we get there.’’

He said INEC’s  interactions with the National Assembly  suggested that amendments to the Electoral Act might be done by July.
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