INEC Chairman says he cannot promise conclusive polls in 2019

The National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said that he is not sure of conducting conclusive elections in 2019.

Yakubu also stated that he would not be pressured to step outside the lines of the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the Guidelines to impress anyone.

He said these during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos, adding that the power to conclude or otherwise of an election is determined by the way and manner voters conducted themselves during elections. And this, he said, he has zero control of.

The INEC chair, added that he cannot dare second-guess any election.

Yakubu blamed the non-existence of any law prosecuting electoral offenders, which he said is the cause of abysmal level of electoral malpractices involving many Nigerian politicians and responsible for many other hitches the commission has been dealing with.

The INEC boss debunked assumptions that virtually all the elections conducted by the commission under his leadership were inconclusive.

He argued that since he assumed office, INEC had concluded about 137 elections, 80 of which were rerun and the rest were isolated polls like the Kogi and Bayelsa States elections, including also, the recent elections into the Federal Capital Territory.

Read also: Inconclusive polls in Imo: Fayose says INEC a threat to Nigeria’s democracy

“We won’t conclude elections at all means. But we will only always conclude elections with regards to the laws of the land and the Electoral Act,” he said adding that the commission has continued to conduct elections practically every weekend unknown to many Nigerians.

According to him, inconclusive polls were not peculiar to his leadership; he mentioned instances in the past where elections were not concluded immediately, emphasising more than any other, the 1983 re-election of former President Shehu Shagari, which propelled the military to take over from power.

He recalled in 2011 elections, that the former INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega had to postpone election even when voting had commenced in some parts of the country.

Yakubu then echoed “I can’t guarantee conclusive elections in 2019. I cannot second-guess Nigerians and I don’t know where they would head in 2019.”

The INEC chairman maintained that he would not step a foot outside what the laws and guidelines dictate for the conduct of elections, urging Nigerians to work with him in ensuring that the polls are conclusive through shared
roles and responsibilities.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

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