.. Identifies Legal Battles Among Candidates as Major Challenge

“The reprinting of the materials in compliance with court orders within a short period of time is not only expensive but the management of the process very challenging”

Amidst the rising spate of electoral violence and electoral cases in court, the Independent National Electoral Commission has called for peaceful conduct in the November 11 off-cycle gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa, Kogi, and Imo states and warned the political class to put dispute mechanism strategies in place to resolve their issues internally.

Speaking at the Consultative Meeting with the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and the leaders of the political parties today in Abuja, INEC chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu noted that it is the first time the commission will be conducting such an election in three states on the same day, urging the party leaders to call their supporters to maintain peace during the campaign rallies and processions.

An array of political leaders at the meeting

The INEC chairman explained to the relevant stakeholders that free and fair elections are only possible in an atmosphere of peace, adding that elections are a process involving human beings as voters, election officials, and observers.

“As electioneering campaigns continue to intensify, the Commission reiterates its concern about the spate of violence in the three States involving parties and candidates. I wish to remind you as party leaders that free and fair elections are only possible in an atmosphere of peace.

“After all, election is a process involving human beings as voters, election officials, observers and the media whose safety is of paramount concern to us. While we will continue to work with the security agencies in this regard, political parties acting individually or collectively through the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) also have an obligation to impress on your members, candidates and supporters to maintain peace during the campaign rallies and procession. I urge you to also appeal to them to maintain the same disposition on Election Day and beyond.”

Addressing the challenges the commission is facing with ongoing legal works amongst the political parties and their candidates, Professor Yakubu stated that despite the umpire’s preparation for the polls some candidates are still getting court orders for the changing of names on the printed sensitive materials.

He added that the changes the commissions is being compelled to make by the courts has added to their expenses and cost of reproducing some of the materials arranged for the coming elections

“On the issue of candidature, the Commission is concerned about the spate of recent judgements and orders of court in respect of the nomination, substitution or disqualification of candidates after all the sensitive materials have been printed.

“The reprinting of the materials in compliance with court orders within a short period of time is not only expensive but the management of the process very challenging. Although the Commission has already published the final list of candidates for the three States, four recent court orders have compelled us to review the list. These changes have been reflected in the updated list of parties and candidates on our website. However, this decision is without prejudice to any pending appeal by the affected candidates or their political parties.”

He, however, noted that the commission would proceed with its preparation, indicating it would publish the identification cards of the agents submitted to the commission by the end of week.

His full speech reads “Let me first of all welcome the Chairmen and other leaders of political parties to our regular quarterly consultative meeting. Since our last meeting in July this year, there have been changes to the leadership of some political parties. It is therefore my pleasure to especially welcome the Chairmen of political who are attending this meeting for the first time in substantive acting capacities.

“You may recall that at our last meeting, we reviewed the conduct of the 2023 General Election as part of the wider consultation with stakeholders. I am glad to report that we are finalising the review report as well as the main report of the General Election. As soon as they are finalised, we will, as usual, share the reports with you, other stakeholders and the public.

“Today, the subject matter of our meeting is the ongoing preparations for the three off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled to hold on Saturday 11th November 2023. With just a little over two weeks to the election, we are at the concluding stages of our preparations. This is the first time that the Commission will be conducting three off-cycle Governorship elections simultaneously across different geo-political zones. This is made possible by the coincidence of the end of tenure of the current holders of the offices which fall within the constitutional timeframe of not earlier than 150 days or later than 30 days before the expiration of their terms of office as enshrined in Section 178(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“The Commission has delivered all non-sensitive materials for the elections to the three States. The training of various categories of ad hoc staff is ongoing. We have made the soft copies of the complete register of voters available to all political parties participating in the elections. We conducted the mock accreditation of voters and the upload of results to our IReV portal using the BVAS. Stakeholder engagements are ongoing. Our State offices have concluded the readiness assessment of our facilities as well as the movement of critical facilities to our 56 Local Government offices across the three States.

“At the same time, political parties have uploaded the names of their polling and collation agents to the dedicated web portal. As I informed Nigerians at the meeting with our Resident Electoral Commissions (RECs) last week, a total of 137,934 agents made up of 130,093 polling and 7,841 collation agents have already been uploaded to the portal. However, not all the political parties have nominated agents for all the polling units and even the collation centres in the three States. In the next few days, the Commission will publish the detailed distribution of agents uploaded by all political parties for public information. I urge you to consider the submission of names of agents as important as the nomination of candidates for election.

“I am glad to report that the printing of agents’ identity cards will be completed this weekend. This will allow political parties ample time to distribute the cards to their agents. All the identity cards are QR Code-readable to ensure maximum security and to avoid impersonation by unaccredited persons.

“On the issue of candidature, the Commission is concerned about the spate of recent judgements and orders of court in respect of the nomination, substitution or disqualification of candidates after all the sensitive materials have been printed. The reprinting of the materials in compliance with court orders within a short period of time is not only expensive but the management of the process very challenging. Although the Commission has already published the final list of candidates for the three States, four recent court orders have compelled us to review the list. These changes have been reflected in the updated list of parties and candidates on our website. However, this decision is without prejudice to any pending appeal by the affected candidates or their political parties.

“As electioneering campaigns continue to intensify, the Commission reiterates its concern about the spate of violence in the three States involving parties and candidates. I wish to remind you as party leaders that free and fair elections are only possible in an atmosphere of peace. After all, election is a process involving human beings as voters, election officials, observers and the media whose safety is of paramount concern to us. While we will continue to work with the security agencies in this regard, political parties acting individually or collectively through the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) also have an obligation to impress on your members, candidates and supporters to maintain peace during the campaign rallies and procession. I urge you to also appeal to them to maintain the same disposition on Election Day and beyond”.