Victor EzejaChairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has assured Nigerians that the electoral body will adopt lessons on issues that occurred during the 2023 general elections for improvement on future polls.
Prof. Yakubu stated this in his remarks at the Post-election Review meeting with electoral officers held on Wednesday, 18 July in Abuja.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe INEC chairman said the post-election review of the 2023 general election was necessary to tackle challenges recorded.
The Commission had, on July 4, announced the commencement of review of the 2023 general election. A week later, it began state-level review meetings with a view to identifying areas of improvement.
“Today, we commence a more focused engagement at national level with the Commission’s frontline officials, the Electoral Officers (EOs). We also considered it appropriate to interface with transport providers to review logistic arrangements by inviting the leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN),” Yakubu said.
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The meeting comes as the electoral body prepares for the governorship elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States on 11 November 2023 as it discusses logistics.
The INEC chairman noted that deployment of personnel and materials to various locations across the country during elections has been a perennial challenge, and is now compounded by issues of infrastructure, and insecurity.
He said the Commission has to make adequate preparations such as deployment of personnel for Continuous voter registration, monitoring of party primaries procurement and distribution of materials ahead for Election Day success.
He listed areas that needed to be reviewed to include: General State of Preparedness for the 2023 General Election, voters registration process, and the associated issues of Adequacy of Timing, display of voter register for claims and objections, clean-up of voter register, PVC Collection etc.; recruitment, training, deployment and remuneration of ad hoc staff, including specific issues of mode of recruitment, conduct of training, timing, adequacy, effectiveness and utility of e-learning training platforms, and strategy for efficient payment of ad hoc staff.
Yakubu added that matters arise from the implementation of the expansion of voter access to Polling Units; receipt and deployment of election materials; and technology used during elections including the various portals for nomination of ad hoc staff, candidates, accreditation of observers, media, polling/collation agents as well as voter registration, accreditation and result management.
According to him, issues of election security and Election Day processes with reference to logistics (movement of materials and personnel) and inventory of election materials would be reviewed.
He said that in line with the Commission’s policy, a comprehensive report will be prepared after the review.
“I therefore urge you to lend your wealth of experience to the discussions in order to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses for immediate improvement in forthcoming elections, especially the three off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled to hold on Saturday 11th November 2023.
“I want to assure Nigerians in the next two weeks, the Commission plans to hold more engagements with internal and external stakeholders, including political parties, civil society organisations, the media and security agencies,” he stated.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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