Lawmaker Recall Exercise Costlier Than Constituency Election — INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), at the weekend, said it was more expensive to conduct an exercise to recall an elected lawmaker than conducting a constituency election.

The electoral umpire currently has a petition seeking the recall of the the suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, over alleged gross misconduct.

The Special Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mohammed Kunna, spoke on the cost of the recall exercise at an online discussion on ‘INEC Regulation and Guidelines for Recall 2024’.

“Once a petition is received and verified to meet legal requirements, INEC must first conduct a verification exercise at the affected polling units.

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“For that verification to happen, we have to use the Bi-Modal Voter Verification System (BVAS) because those who signed the petition must be verified as genuine registered voters in those units.

“Then, INEC needs to establish 50 per cent plus one signature from the constituency. After that, we proceed to the final stage: conducting the referendum, which involves a ‘yes or no’ vote by registered voters in the constituency,” he said.

He noted that the process involved mobilising staff, deploying election materials, transportation, and other resources, much like conducting three senatorial district elections.

“In my opinion, the recall process is much more expensive than conducting a single senatorial district election,” Kunna added.

For his part, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, admitted the high cost of recall but emphasised that INEC must adhere to the law.

“What is important is what the law says we should do in each case if constituents wish to recall their representatives.

“The law allows a recall election only if the petitioners meet constitutional requirements, including submitting signatures from at least half of the registered voters in the constituency.

“Once the petition is received, INEC performs a preliminary check and then verifies the signatures. The lawmaker facing recall is informed and has the right to deploy agents to observe the process.

“Observers and media personnel can also participate in the verification and referendum,” Oyekanmi stated.