INEC: We have capacity to face challenges of 2023 elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has the capacity and courage to face challenges that the 2023 general election may bring.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of INEC, who was represented by Festus Okoye, INEC commissioner for information and voter education, said this on Friday at the launch of Yiaga Africa watching the vote report on the conduct of 2022 Ekiti and Osun governorship elections.

Okoye said the commission has taken lessons from the recently conducted Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and will improve on its strategies in conducting elections in 2023.

“I want to seize this opportunity to assure Nigeria that this present commission will be bold and courageous in prosecuting the 2023 general elections,” he said.

“We are going to harvest and we will continue to harvest lessons from the Edo governorship election, the Ondo governorship election the Anambra governorship election, the Ekiti and the Osun governorship elections in shaping the way we approach the 2023 general election.

“We are going to harvest all the good practices, we are also going to look at some of those issues we did not do so well and we will improve on them.

“But our assurance is that this commission will not lower the bar and we are going to improve and we continue to improve with every election.

“All the good practices we deployed in prosecuting the elections under review will also be deployed for the prosecution of the 2023 general election.

“We encourage civil society groups and organisations we encourage the media, political parties and all the critical stakeholders to study the Electoral Act 2022 to have a working knowledge of the provisions of the Electoral Act.

“The Electoral Act 2022 is different from the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. There are creative and innovative provisions that have been imputed into the Electoral Act 2022 That has changed the framework and dynamics of election management and result management in Nigeria.

“Unless we have a good knowledge of these documents, it will be very difficult for us to follow the trajectory of the electoral process and some of the innovations and some of the changes the commission will make and will continue to make towards improving the character and content and context of elections.

“This commission will continue to upload polling unit results to our INEC results viewing portal. This commission will not depart from it.

“The Nigerian people will be involved in every inch of the process in terms of knowing what is going on at the various polling units through our processes and procedures.

“We plead for the understanding of Nigerians we plead for the cooperation of Nigerians because we recognise the fact that the 2023 election will be challenging, but we have the capacity, and we also have the courage to face those challenges in a very broad and courageous manner.

Yiaga commended the electoral commission over improvement in election administration, especially in election result management, the functionality of technological devices and stakeholder engagement.

“Based on Yiaga Africa’s findings both elections (Ekiti and Osun) signify progress in Nigeria’s elections journey based on the significant improvement in the management of election logistics, openness of the voting process, transparency and accuracy of the election results, and compliance with electoral Act 2022 and INEC Guidelines and Regulations for elections,” the report stated.

“Be that as it may there were cases of ballot box snatching, violence, and disruption of voting and result collation by thugs and hoodlums linked to political parties.

“The national assembly should expedite actions to pass the National Electoral Offences Commission bill. This will enable effective arrest and prosecution of violators of the electoral laws before, during and after the elections.

“INEC needs to revisit voter allocation to polling units especially for the newly created polling units to ensure equitable distribution of voters, which will reduce congestion and ease election day administration for the commission.

“Where the commission assigns polling units to voters, it should update the voter records on its website and communicate the changes to prevent voter disenfranchisement, especially to voters who have been assigned to new polling units.”