would hold on February 14, Valentine's day, caused an
uproar in the country.
A lot of people felt that the date wasn't suitable and the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was
under attack over it.
However, the Chairman of INEC, Attahiru Jega, has set
the record straight and announced that the date was chosen
for valid reasons.
The Presidential and National Assembly elections are
slated for February 14, 2015 while the Gubernatorial and
State Assembly elections will take place on the 28th of the
same month.
Read report below:
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has said the
timetable for the 2015 general election recently announced
by the Commission was informed by rational and logical
considerations, not sentimental or ulterior motivations.
He said the Commission was mindful of its own
operational effectiveness and global best practice in
grouping national elections together on one day, and state
elections together on another. The timetable announced
two weeks ago by INEC schedules National Assembly and
Presidential elections for February 14, 2015, and
Governorship as well as State Assembly elections for
February 28, 2015.
While fielding questions from that audience after a
presentation he made at a well-attended forum at Chatham
House, London, at the weekend, Professor Jega dismissed
suggestions that INEC was under external pressure in
designing the election timetable the way it did. "Nobody
has put us under any pressure. We did these things
logically and rationally, in terms of what we considered
best for our country," he said.
The Chatham House event was a public forum at the
instance of Africa Programme unit of the organisation,
which invited Professor Jega to make a presentation on
'2015 Elections in Nigeria: Expectations and Challenges.'
Responding to an enquiry on the rationale for the election
schedules, the INEC chairman explained that the country
is not up to having all the elections in one day. He also
disagreed with suggestions that the elections were
drastically reordered, when compared to 2011. "As far as
we are concerned, the presidential election is not
positioned first. What we did is that we combined the
National elections, so you can't say that presidential
election is placed first," he said.
Professor Jega explained: "Some Nigerians wonder why
we can't have all the elections in one day. It is true that in
some countries, they conduct all their elections in one day.
From our own assessment, the enormity of challenges
associated with that is such that we are not prepared in the
electoral commission to do all the elections in one day.
But then, we felt that instead of having three elections, let
us have two. In 2011, we had three: we did the National
Assembly elections first; then, the Presidential; and then,
the Governorship as well as State Assembly elections. But
we felt that (in 2015), let us have two elections rather than
three. Then we said: what is the best combination in line
with global best practice? The global best practice is that
you do national elections separate from state elections, if
you can't do all together. So, rather than have the
Presidential and Governorship elections together, or the
National Assembly with State Assembly elections; we
said, let us have all the national elections together, and
then the state elections.
"That is the logic, that is the rationale; and it is defensible.
But you hear politicians make all manners of allegations;
because in their own calculation, some people want certain
elections to come first, others want it to come later. If you
do not satisfy what they want, then they would start
accusing you as if there is an interest being served, or that
we came under some pressure. Nobody has put us under
any pressure."
The INEC chairman added that the elections were slated
for February 2014 to allow time for litigations before the
commencement of new tenures. This schedule, he noted,
perfectly conforms to legal provisions requiring elections
to be conducted not earlier than 150 days and not later
than 30 days before the expiration of relevant tenures. "In
2011, we did voter registration in January/February, that
was why the elections had to wait till April. But since we
are not doing a fresh registration in 2015, we said let's
have the elections early in the period permissible, so that
there will be more time before swearing-in for litigation."
Professor Jega assured that INEC is sparing no effort to
ensure that the challenge of logistics which marred past
elections is prevented in future elections, namely the Ekiti
and Osun governorships, and the 2015 general election.
He, however, regretted that reports of that challenge
during the November 2013 Anambra State governorship
election were overblown.
He said: "The issue of logistics is a major challenge for
INEC, and we are doing our best to address it. But for
Anambra, the state has 31 local government areas, and the
challenge we faced was with regard to one local
government – Idemili North. Since the Edo State
governorship election, we started customising result sheets
to specific wards and polling units. In the past, politicians
would get result sheets and move them around. So, we
started customised the result sheets. And so, if there was a
mix-up in the distribution among polling units, you would
have the kind of crisis we had in Anambra. Of course,
there was no reason why there should be that kind of mix-
up, and we were not satisfied by the explanation given by
the Electoral Officer in charge of that local government.
But the fact was: before we could retrieve and redistribute
those result sheets, time had lapsed and the people had
become agitated. Some even blocked our officials from
proceeding with the process of redistribution, because they
suspected that something funny was happening.
"What we have done is to have that officer arraigned in
court. He has been charged, because it is a criminal
offence to obstruct the electoral process or undermine
elections. The matter is in court, and is being prosecuted.
So, we are doing our best. You cannot stop people from
interpreting what happened one way or the other,
especially as it is true that Idemili is an area considered a
stronghold of one of the candidates. Was it done
deliberately? That is what the court case will be
addressing. But we cannot allow this to continue to
happen. And that is why we are paying a lot of attention to
addressing the challenge. We have demonstrated a
capacity to identify people who are responsible for
failures, and to hold them accountable. And that is another
thing that wasn't the case in the past. It is a big challenge
and we will continue to do our best in that regard."
The INEC chairman is certain that the challenge of people
not finding their names on the biometric register of voters
on Election Day will not reoccur if every voter make the
effort to ascertain their status during impending display of
the register before the commencement of Continuous
Voter Registration (CVR) nationwide. Besides, there are
additional means being put in place by the Commission to
facilitate voter enquiry about the register.
He said: "We have already provided a service in that
regard, using the SMS platform. In fact, in Anambra –
although it came a bit late before the election, and there
was no massive publicity to get the people adequately
aware – we deployed the use of SMS to enable the voter to
interrogate the register. You could send an SMS to a
particular number to know whether you are on the register,
and in which polling unit you have registered. We hope to
launch this facility nationwide by the end of this month, so
that people can interrogate the register. And before the
2015 elections, we hope to have the register accessible on
INEC website so that people can ascertain their status."
The Chatham House forum in London was an extension of
a similar event organised earlier in the week by the United
States Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS) in Washington DC. Professor Jega was invited to
give a keynote speech on '2015 Elections in Nigeria:
Preparations and Challenges,' at a public event where
leading Nigerian Civil Society activist were panellists.
CSO leaders hosted at the event were Clement Nwankwo,
Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre
(PLAC) and Convener of the Civil Society Situation Room
on Elections; Ayisha Oshori, Executive Director, Nigerian
Women Trust Fund; Festus Okoye, Chairman of the
Independent Election Monitors; Dr. Abiola Akiyode-
Afolabi; Executive Director, WARD-C; Jude Ohanele,
Chairman of South-east Governance Network; and Inemo
Samiama, Director, Stakeholders Democracy Network.
The Washington event drew participation from senior
United States policy makers, diplomats and development
partners, among them former U. S. Secretary of State for
African Affairs, Ambassador Johnnie Carson; former U. S.
Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell; Senior Associate
and Regional Director at the National Democratic Institute
(NDI), Christopher Fomunyoh; President, International
Republican Institute, Ambassador Mark Green; Senior
Advisor, Open Society Foundations, Morton H. Halperin;
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human
Rights and Labour, Karen J. Hanrahan; Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, U. S.
Department of State, Robert P. Jackson; Director of
African Studies and Associate Professor, John Hopkins
University, Peter M. Lewis; Senior Advisor to the
President, United States Institute of Peace, Princeton N.
Lyman; and Vice President, Programs, International
Foundation for Electoral Systems, Michael Svetlik.
Via: YNaija
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