By Olayemi Esan
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned political parties against Electoral Malpractices, advised them to abide by the provisions of the law, INEC’s regulations and guidelines as well as their Constitutions and guidelines in choosing their candidates for forth coming elections.
The chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, issued the warning during a meeting with the resident electoral commissioners held at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday which was the last meeting for the year 2021.
Yakubu said, INEC will monitor the primaries as required by law. Political parties must therefore hold themselves to the same high standard of free, fair, transparent and credible elections that they expect from INEC during general elections.
"The Commission issued 63,745 identification tags to agents of the 18 political parties that sponsored candidates for the election" he said.
He added that, any political party that fails to conduct democratic primaries within the timeframe provided in the Commission’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities cannot be expected to submit the names of candidates to INEC for elections.
In addition to these off-cycle elections, INEC Chairman advised parties to continue to prepare for the 2023 General Election.
"We have so many physical facilities to rebuild, materials to replace, regulations and guidelines to work on, consultations with stakeholders to strengthen, capacity of our staff to enhance and several aspects of election administration to improve upon.", he added.
Yakubu stated that the Commission piloted two important technological innovations in the Anambra State Governorship election. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was deployed for the first time in a major election after the successful pilot in the Isoko South I State Constituency in Delta State in September this year.
"The BVAS has replaced the Smart Card Reader for verification and authentication as part of our improved voter accreditation process. The new technology was designed in-house by INEC engineers.
"The second technological innovation introduced in the Anambra Governorship election went virtually unnoticed by many Nigerians. For sometime now, dedicated portals were created by Commission to handle different aspect of the electoral process
Yakubu pointed out that a total of 42,986 Nigerians completed their registration in the FCT Area Council Election scheduled for 12th February 2022, For Ekiti State, the exercise begins in the next 2 weeks on 4th January 2022 and ends on 29th January 2022. In the case of Osun State, party primaries begin on 16th February 2022 and ends on 12th March 2022.
"In addition, there are eight pending bye-elections involving three Federal Constituencies (Jos North/Bassa in Plateau State, Akure North/Akure South in Ondo State and Ogoja/Yala in Cross River State) and five State constituencies (Shinkafi in Zamfara State, Ekiti East I in Ekiti State, Akpabuyo in Cross River State, Pankshin South in Plateau State and Giwa West in Kaduna State).
INEC Chairman therefore thanked the security agencies for working cooperatively and professionally with the Commission to secure the environment for the peaceful conduct of the election.
