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2023: No Electoral Law, No Election Timetable, INEC Warns

by Sunday Isuwa, Adebiyi Adedapo   and Tunde Oguntola
4 months ago
in COVER STORIES, NEWS, POLITICS
Reading Time: 7 mins read
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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called for a speedy passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, saying it will release the timetable for 2023 elections once President Muhammad Buhari signs the bill into law.

The nation’s electoral umpire has insisted that the passage of the bill is crucial to the preparations for the elections.

LEADERSHIP recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari had last month withheld assent to the electoral bill, citing the inclusion of a provision for mandatory direct primary election for political parties.

He later granted an interview to a television station, assuring that he would sign the bill if that item was removed from the legislation to grant political parties the right to decide the mode of choosing their candidates for elections.

INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed this in Abuja yesterday during the first quarterly meeting with political parties for the year 2022, said the commission was looking forward to the speedy passage of the bill.

He stressed that the Commission was encouraged by the Senate president’s assurance to give priority attention to the Bill when the National Assembly reconvenes from recess, and the commitment by the president to assent to the Bill as soon as the issue of mode of primaries by political parties is resolved.

The INEC boss noted that year 2022 is undoubtedly going to be a very busy year for the Commission and the political parties.

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On the major end-of-tenure and off-cycle elections, particularly for Ekiti and Osun states, he stressed the need for political parties to conduct transparent and rancour-free primaries.

“Party primaries for the Ekiti State governorship election are scheduled for 4th – 29th January, 2022.

“For the Osun State Governorship election, primaries will hold from 16th February to 12th March, 2022.

“In the case of Ekiti State, all the 18 political parties have served the mandatory notices for the primaries. Let me seize this opportunity to draw the attention of parties to the necessity for transparent and rancour-free primaries,” he said.

Yakubu noted that parties should also respect their chosen dates for the primaries based on the commission’s timetable and schedule of activities.

Already, he said many parties had rescheduled their primaries several times, while the Commission had earmarked a period of three weeks and four days (i.e., 25 days) for the conduct of the Ekiti State governorship primary election.

He said virtually all political parties had decided to hold their primaries in the last four days, i.e., 26th – 29th January, 2022.

Yakubu continued, “Seven political parties have chosen the last day for their primaries. Similarly, no party has so far submitted its list of aspirants, the composition of its electoral panel, or the register of members or list of delegates depending on the chosen mode for electing its candidates.

“As of yesterday, only one party has indicated the venue for its primaries. I urge you all to do so immediately to enable us to work out the detailed plans for monitoring the primaries.

“All primaries for electing candidates must take place in the constituency where election will hold, as required by law. In the cases of Ekiti and Osun State governorship elections, any primaries conducted outside the two states will not be monitored by the Commission and their outcomes will not be accepted. This also applies to primaries for bye-elections conducted outside the constituencies.”

On the 2023 general election, he said it is just 396 days away, so all the critical preparations must be concluded this year.

“The Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) which commenced in June last year has entered the third quarter. As of yesterday Monday 17th January, 2022, a total of 8,260,076 eligible Nigerians commenced the online pre-registration, completed the registration physically, or applied for a transfer to new voting locations, replacement of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), or updated their voter information records as required by law.

“The commission has been publishing weekly progress reports of the exercise. We are aware that Nigerians want to know when their PVCs will be available for collection.”

At the moment, he said the Commission is undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning up of the data to ensure that only eligible citizens are added to the voter register for the 2023 general election and will share its findings with Nigerians adding that the actual dates for the collection of the PVCs nationwide will be announced very soon.

He stressed the need to continue to encourage eligible voters who had not registered to do so, noting that those who had registered at any time previously need not register again.

“Also, encourage voters who wish to transfer from their present Polling Units to new ones created as part of the Commission’s expansion of voter access polling units to do so immediately,” he said.

The INEC helmsman also congratulated the chairman of Action Democratic Party (ADP), Engineer Yabagi Sani, on his election as Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) as well as other members of the executive committee of IPAC.

He noted that the commission has worked closely with the immediate past leadership of IPAC chaired by Dr Leonard Nzenwa.

The INEC chairman also recalled that last week, the commission released the timetable for six bye-elections in four states of the federation scheduled to hold on Saturday 26th February, 2022.

He said the detailed timetable is already uploaded to our website and social media platforms.

“Hard copies are also included in your folders for this meeting. Meanwhile, the commission has also decided that the suspended Ekiti East I State Constituency bye-election will be combined with the state governorship election holding on 18th June, 2022.

“The date for the Shinkafi state constituency bye-election in Zamfara State will be announced after a thorough review of the security situation in the area, while the commission awaits the declaration of vacancy by the Kaduna State House of Assembly in respect of Giwa West state constituency,” he said.

He also noted that it was 25 days to the Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory, with major activities already been carried out, including the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates by political parties.

Only last week, he said the Commission presented the register of voters to political parties while the PVCs for new registrants, requests for transfers, and replacement of cards had been printed and delivered several weeks ago to its FCT office for collection by voters.

In the next few weeks, he said the Commission will intensify stakeholder engagements, the monitoring of campaigns by political parties, and preparations for Election Day activities.

“On this note, I want to draw your attention to the distribution of voters to Polling Units in the FCT, particularly the fact that 593 out of 2,822, or 21 percent of the total, do not have voters.

“This is because voters failed to take advantage of the expansion of access to transfer to these new Polling Units,” he said.

Speaking further, he said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will be deployed in the FCT elections – the second major election after the Anambra governorship election held in November last year.

“The same technology will be deployed in all forthcoming bye-elections across the country. For all elections going forward, Polling Unit results will be uploaded in real-time to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal,” he said.

On his part, IPAC national chairman, Yabagi Sani, said that the most serious and potent impediment to the successful conduct of the 2023 general elections is the dispute between the Executive and the Legislature on the fate of the 2021 Electoral (Amendment) Bill.

Sani said while time is dangerously running out for the resolution of the dispute between the two arms, IPAC is of the position that the controversy may have been contrived, in the first instance, in pursuit of narrow and self-centred political ambitions by some gladiators.

“We are, therefore, using this occasion to once again make our strident call for the immediate resolution of the unnecessary impasse over the Electoral Amendment Bill in the superior and overriding national interest,” he said.

Urging INEC not only sustain its successes but further perfect its operations, he called on the electoral umpire to rectify lapses observed during the Anambra governorship election.

Among others, he said the IPAC noticed the need to upgrade the level of the diligence and proficiency of both its permanent and ad hoc personnel on election duty, by way of training, refresher courses, and re-orientation.

He stressed the need for a more robust deployment of logistics and greater performance in the distribution of vital election materials.

“Very importantly, IPAC is recommending improvement in the operational conditions of all the biometric gadgets in order to reinforce the growing confidence in their use as reliable technological devices for the enthronement of credible and transparent elections,” he said.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan gave assurance that the red chamber would expedite action on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, having concluded all consultations on the president’s response.

Lawan gave the hint yesterday in an address delivered at the start of plenary to welcome senators back from the Christmas and New Year recess.

He recalled that the Senate postponed discussions on the consideration of the response of President Muhammadu Buhari on the Electoral Act 2010 Amendment Bill in December last year.

He said this became imperative to enable the chamber consult with its counterparts in the House of Representatives and their Constituents respectively.

According to him, the chamber would expeditiously look into the Electoral Bill having concluded all the needed consultations on the President’s response.

The Senate President further assured that the upper chamber would continue to give INEC the required support through legislative interventions to ensure that the Commission succeeds in the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

He said, “Distinguished colleagues, political activities leading to 2023 general elections have already started. This Senate should continue to provide the support that INEC needs for successful elections across the country.”

Lawan also urged standing committees to strategies on ways to effectively oversight Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government to ensure the thorough implementation of the 2022 budget passed by the National Assembly in December last year and signed into law by President Buhari.

“This is going to be the last budget that would be fully implemented for 12 months in the life of the Ninth Senate. We, therefore, need to supervise it very closely,” Lawan said.

He assured that the Senate would develop a strategy of engagement with revenue generating agencies on how to make them achieve their targets and generate more revenues in 2022.

According to him, this would reduce the country’s dependence on external borrowing to fund critical infrastructural projects.

“Distinguished Colleagues, funding of the 2022 budget is predicated on significant borrowing. Our country is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

“We have to construct and provide infrastructure in all parts of our country because infrastructure is needed for our nation to develop.

“However, we do not generate enough revenues to fund the provision of such infrastructure. Until more revenues are generated, the country has to borrow and also resort to other sources of funding our infrastructural development. But we cannot continue to borrow endlessly.

“The Senate will ensure that we boost their revenue generating drive with a view to reducing borrowing for development of our much-needed infrastructure. This is a major challenge for our development and we need to treat as such,” he said.

On plans by the chamber to review the 1999 Constitution, he said, “Our Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution has done so much work so far.

“Working with their counter parts in the House of Representatives, the report of the Committee will be presented to the Senate for consideration soon.

“The Senate will consider the report and the National Assembly will communicate to the State Houses of Assembly within the first quarter of this year.”

Despite the decision of President Muhammadu to withhold assent on the Electoral Act amendment bill due to the clause seeking to compulsory direct primary in political parties, speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila has insisted that it remained the most democratic system of selecting party candidates.

The speaker, in his welcome remarks to his colleagues when the House reconvened yesterday, noted that a primary nomination process that deprives the majority of party members the opportunity to choose who represents them in the general elections is susceptible to bad outcomes and ought to be fixed.

“I remain convinced that the proposal for direct primary elections is valuable for building accountability in our political system,” Gbajabiamila said.

He, however, hinted that the lawmakers would reintroduce the bill today (Wednesday), expunge the contentious clause and resend the bill for presidential assent.

“The House will reintroduce the amendment this tomorrow.  And we will work quickly to address the mitigating concerns, pass the Bill and send it back to His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

“Now, we have to choose between sticking to our guns regarding the provision to mandate direct primary elections for political parties or reworking that provision to save the rest of the bill,” the speaker said.

Gbajabiamila explained that “our only objective in introducing that provision was to strengthen the foundations of our democracy so that it works for all of our nation’s people.”

He further explained that the process by which political parties nominate candidates for election is as essential as the general election, adding that it was wrong to assume that political parties could not clean up their voter registration to ensure a feasible direct primary nomination process.

“Some argued that political parties do not have proper registers of their members, which was a reason to reject the direct primary option.  This is an appalling admission that political parties in the country do not have credible and up to date registers of their members.

We are left to question how those parties have thus far managed their affairs, including conducting congresses and primary elections, whether by direct or indirect means.

 

“Besides, it can be inferred that the failure to maintain a proper register of members violates the spirit of the constitution, as it makes it impossible for INEC to enforce the constitutional requirement for political parties to ensure that their membership reflects the federal character of Nigeria.

 

“It is disappointing that the failure of political parties to adequately document their membership is being used to not give the Nigerian people the power to fully participate in our nation’s politics.  If nothing else, including a direct primary mandate in the law would have forced political parties to properly register their members within the shortest possible time. This would have been the singular most significant reform of our political party system in a generation,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, the states Houses of Assembly may begin to receive items in the proposed amendment to the 1999 Constitution.

 

“We will prioritise action to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives.  Fortunately, we are in the final stages of that effort and will shortly conclude this all-important work.  According to the deputy speaker, the first set of amendments will be forwarded to the state assemblies for consideration before the end of February,” Gbajabiamila said.

 

 

 

 

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