INEC Cleansing Of Voter Register

Recent ugly revelations by the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties,CNPP on plans to manipulate the 2023 electoral register  ahead of the polls should worry everyone, especially the Independent National Electoral Commission  INEC. Enough allegations were raised and documents were presented as evidences that the new voters register has been hacked or manipulated by some unscrupulous who are bent on rigging the elections. The clear example with Imo State and other states are facts that must be quickly investigated by INEC. Almost a week now, INEC has not responded and no statement from its leadership. With the way campaigns and mobilisations are taking place, INEC should clear itself and work to ensure that their system is safe from being manipulated by either external forces or its own personnel.

Before the allegations were raised, INEC has come out to say it has commenced the cleasing of the viter register and many cases of double or multiple registrations were removed.  Very commendable efforts there. Now, the commission should direct its atte tion on the new dimension of electoral crime of fraudulent insertions of names into the voters register for purposes of manipulation.

It has become increasingly necessary to keep reinforcing the need to ensure the maximum utilization of technology for the much needed credibility of our electoral processes. This is the only way by which democratic governance can be genuinely  and critically legitimized and equitably sustained. Melting Point  had last week began series of enlightenment and awareness on the new technology that has, and  can improve on the quality of our elections and bring about electoral stability and democratic peace in our land. With the emergence of  the Bimodal Verification Accreditation System, BVAS, which is replacing the Smart Card Readers used in previous elections, polls in Nigeria will now be better in credibility. Those in government and in power who connive with electoral officials to recklessly cancel manual votes on their way to collation centers will be disappointed. No luxury of doing so anymore. Thanks to the system which has thrown up this development. While many officials of INEC are happy with the new positive changes, especially the honest and sincere ones, the bad and criminal officials of the electoral umpire will be sleepless because it is no longer business for them as usual. The new system of check and balance will not afford them the window of making brisk business during the lucrative season of elections. I mean those who collude  to cheat by cancelling votes of winners. Technological development has no doubt strengthen the capacity of the electoral body by providing a level playing ground for all parties and improve on the hope of getting justice at the end of every voting exercise. The recent elections in Ekiti and Osun states have been rated excellent because of these improvements. Even though vote buying may still exists, it is a matter of time that all other similar issues will be addressed.

With  increasing sensitization and enlightenment of voters by political parties and other civil society organizations  towards political participation and the increasing rate at which voters are being registered, only hard work, lobby, ability to persuade can bring good results. A candidate can only be optimistic of winning elections if he or she is sure the people accepts him or her. No government can easily impose anyone any more. The old system of waiting in the wings and laying ambush at the collation centers to change or swap results of votes already casted at the polling units is no more. The anxiety and apprehension, insecurity and crisis associated with collation has been take off the shelve. The major work rests squarely at the polling units from where results are transmitted electronically  into INEC server after the last person has casted his or her vote. By the new arrangement ,counting  of votes are done and the election results announced in the presence of everyone from where results are entered and transmitted. Even though there will still be manual copies of the results  given to each participating political party, security agents and the INEC, the major development here is the immediate electronic transmission which was absent in previous exercises. In this way, everyone will see the result from all units as transmitted  and monitored from the various situation rooms  created by the different candidates, parties, security agents, observer and other monitoring groups.