The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has expressed concerns over the increasing number of bye-elections and their impact on the electoral system’s efficiency, calling for reform to reduce costs and clarify responsibilities. Professor Yakubu voiced his frustration during a consultative meeting with political parties. held at the INEC conference room in Abuja on Wednesday, 22nd
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has expressed concerns over the increasing number of bye-elections and their impact on the electoral system’s efficiency, calling for reform to reduce costs and clarify responsibilities.
Professor Yakubu voiced his frustration during a consultative meeting with political parties. held at the INEC conference room in Abuja on Wednesday, 22nd January 2025, stating that apart from the cost implication of running bye-elections, which seem endless across the country, the bye-elections are also serving as distractions for the electoral body.
The INEC chairman said the commission conducted nine by-elections early in the process. Due to the unpredictability of such an election, as some bye-elections lead to more, 14 more vacancies have occurred since last year. “There were situations where a bye-election in one senatorial district was won by a serving member of the House of Representatives from the same district, thereby creating another vacancy. In turn, a member of the State Assembly won the bye-election to the House of Representatives, thereby creating a vacancy in the State Assembly. Consequently, one byelection led to three bye-elections. Not only are these bye-elections costly, they also divert the Commission’s attention from its other extensive electoral responsibilities, Professor Yakubu lamented.
Professor Yakubu said the commission has been advocating for a more cost-effective approach. alternative means of filling vacancies, as has been the case in many jurisdictions around the world since 2016, calling on the stakeholders to join the commission in calling the National Assembly to amend the laws to amend the challenges the electoral body is facing.
“Over the last nine years, since 2016, the present Commission has been advocating for a more cost-effective alternative means of filling vacancies, as is the case in many jurisdictions around the world. We have similarly been appealing to stakeholders, including political parties, to join the advocacy and ask the National Assembly to amend the law accordingly. Just three weeks ago, we canvassed this position once again during the defence of our 2025 budget before the joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives at the National Assembly,” he said.
Speaking on the The INEC chairman observed the activities of the electoral body last year. The commission conducted 51 rerun elections, bye-elections, and off-cycle elections in 2024, announcing that 2025 will be busier than the previous years as there are other planned activities in its calendar for the year, including the preparation for the off-cycle governorship election in Anambra State in November.
The Notice of Election was published over two months ago as provided in the Timetable. The next activity is the conduct of primaries by political parties. May I remind leaders of political parties that primaries for the nomination of candidates for the Anambra State Governorship election begin in the next two months, i.e., 20th March to 10th April 2025? You may similarly recall that at our last regular meeting, we agreed that you would forward your schedule of activities for the election to the Commission to enable us to work together and plan better for the deployment of personnel and resources for the monitoring of your party primaries and campaign activities to avoid the last-minute rush with the attendant inability to meet deadlines and unnecessarily dissipate our energy and lean resources. So far, only a few parties have complied. I urge those who have not done so to submit the details by the end of this week.
“Even as we prepare We are always mindful of our responsibilities during the Anambra State Governorship election. responsibilities for other elections and electoral activities. For instance, Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 requires the Commission to issue the notice for elections not later than 360 days before the date of the election. This applies to the General as well as off-cycle elections. As you are aware, the Commission is responsible for the Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the only part of the country where INEC conducts local government elections.
“The last Area Council The election in the FCT was held on 12 February 2022. By the effluxion of time, the tenure of the current Chairmen and Councillors ends next year. Consequently, the Commission has approved that the 2026 Area Council election in FCT will hold on Saturday 21st February 2026. Voting will take place in all the designated Polling Units across the 68 constituencies to elect the six Area Council Chairmen and 62 Councilors.
We will publish the election notice in compliance with the mandatory legal requirements. next month, i.e., 26th February 2025. Party primaries will be held from 9th to 30th June 2025. The candidate nomination portal will open from 9:00 am on 21st July 2025 to 6:00 pm on 11th August 2025. The final list of candidates will be published on 22nd September 2025. Campaigning in public by political parties will commence on 24th September 2025 and end at midnight on Thursday, 19th February 2026.
“The detailed Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election as well as the list of constituencies and types of elections in the FCT will be uploaded to our website before the end of this meeting. Hard copies of the two documents have been included in your folders for this meeting. For your guidance, we are also including the hard copies of the Regulation and Guidelines for Political Parties 2022 in your folders while the soft copy is already available from our website http://inecnigeria.org
“In due course, the commission will come up with plans for other routine activities such as the resumption of nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and the conduct of outstanding bye-elections. Over the last one and a half years since the inauguration of the current National and State Assemblies in June 2023, vacancies have occurred in 23 constituencies as a result of the death of serving members or their voluntary resignation for executive positions at Federal, state, and even local government levels as ministers, commissioners, Chairman of a Local Government and even board appointment.
“While the Commission has conducted nine bye-elections early last year, 14 more vacancies have occurred since then. They are unpredictable, unbudgeted, and difficult to plan. in advance. Worse, some by-elections lead to more by-elections. There were situations where a bye-election in one senatorial district was won by a serving member of the House of Representatives from the same District, thereby creating another vacancy. In turn, a member of the State Assembly won the bye-election. to the House of Representatives, thereby creating a vacancy in the State Assembly. Consequently, one bye-election led to three bye-elections. Not only are these bye-elections costly, they also divert the Commission’s attention from its other extensive electoral responsibilities.
“Over the last nine years, since 2016, the present Commission has been advocating for a more cost-effective alternative means of filling vacancies as is the case in many jurisdictions around the world. We have similarly been appealing to stakeholders, including political parties, to join the advocacy and for the National Assembly to amend the law accordingly. Just three weeks ago, we canvassed this position once again during the defence of our 2025 budget before the joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives at the National Assembly. We are glad that more Nigerians are now joining the advocacy. We hope that working together, we will continue to reform and improve our electoral process.”.
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