The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described conflicting court jugments and several legations from the nation’s udiciary as a major impefiment to its efforts at conducting credible and transparent elections in the country
Chairman of the Commission, professor Mahmoud Yakubu, raised the alarm, at the 3rd quarterly meeting with chairmen and secretaries f registered political parties in the country he Chairmen and Leaders of Political Parties.
Professor Yakubu regretted in his opening opening remarks at the meeting that the issue of litigations, particularly the conflicting orders emanating from Courts of coordinate jurisdiction had worked against the commission’s giant stride at conducting credible polls.
” I am aware that some of the cases are still in Court and therefore sub judice. I must say that some of the decided cases are making our work difficult and we have been crying out loud for a long time. In particular, some pre-election litigations relating to the nomination of candidates for elections were not determined until after the elections.
“Consequently, in some instances, political parties were declared winners without candidates to immediately receive the Certificates of Return on account of protracted and conflicting litigations or where Courts rather than votes determine winners of elections. This situation is compounded by cases on the leadership of political parties, thereby making the exercise of our regulatory responsibilities difficult.
‘It appears that in a number of electoral cases in Nigeria today, the settled law is now unsettled and the time-honoured principle of Stare decisis does not seem to matter any longer. What is most disconcerting for us is that the more INEC strives to improve the credibility and transparency of our electoral process, the more extraneous obstacles are put in our way through litigations,” the INEC boss regretted.
He however noted that the Commission appreciates the recent statement by His Lordship the Chief Justice of Nigeria as well as the strongly worded concern by the Nigerian Bar Association, noting that it will work with both the Bar and the Bench to defend the electoral process in the best interest of our democracy.
Professor Yakubu therefore noted that the political party leaders have a role to play, even as he remindef them that INEC is both an umpire and a regulator. in political matters
“The Commission is an umpire in dealing even-handedly with political parties collectively, but when it comes to the management of intra-party affairs, it is a regulator. We will play our role decisively,” he warned.
On the ongoing Continous Voters Registration exercise, professor Yakubu disclosed a the commission has received 2,729,819 applcstions, with youths dominating the exercise with 72% of new registrant.
“Since the resumption of the CVR online on 28th June 2021, we have been giving Nigerians weekly updates on the progress of the exercise which has entered its 11th week today. As of 7am today, Monday 6th September 2021, 2,729,819 fresh voters have pre-registered online.
Similarly, we have been giving weekly updates of the physical registration in our State and Local Government offices nationwide. We started on 26th July 2021. So far, 717,947 Nigerians have completed their registration at the designated centres.
On the use of technology to improve on the electoral process, professor Yakubu noted,” To address this concern, the Commission attempted to introduce the facial biometric authentication during accreditation of the voters using the Z-Pad tablet to complement the fingerprint process through the Card Reader before the Edo Governorship election in September 2020. However, the Commission was not entirely satisfied with the pilot held in the Nasarawa Central State Constituency bye-election a month earlier in August 2020.
We therefore suspended the idea to enable us to do some more work. Over the last one year, we reviewed the situation and we think we have found the appropriate technology to address it. The Z-pad was therefore only used to upload Polling Unit results to the IReV portal during elections.
“The functionality of the Z-pad has now been integrated into the IVED currently used for voter registration. On Election Day, the same device will used for the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for fingerprint authentication during accreditation and where it fails for facial authentication.
We believe that this multi-layer process will eliminate the possibility of voting by identity theft using another person’s PVC. Where the voter fails both the fingerprint and facial authentication, he/she will not be allowed to vote. In other words, no electronic authentication, no voting. We are convinced that the new machine is robust enough to further guarantee the credibility of voter authentication and transparent management of results during elections.
Accordingly, the Commission intends to carry out a pilot exercise using the new device in Delta State during the Isoko South 1 State Assembly constituency bye-election holding this weekend (Saturday 11th September 2021).
“The BVAS will now perform the functions of both the SCR and Z-Pad in the bye-election. Thereafter, it will be deployed in the Anambra Governorship election in November. There will be a presentation of the new device and a practical demonstration of its functions to Chairmen and leaders of political parties at this meeting.”
