INEC to implement amended election sequence, explains why it registers underaged voters

Ahead 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Thursday said that it will implement the electoral sequence as amended by the Senate should President Muhammadu Buhari give his assent to it.

INEC National Commissioner, Voter Education and Publicity, Mr. Solomon Soyebi, stated this when he spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.

Recall that the Senate had during its plenary on Wednesday, adopted the conference committee report on the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill, which alters the sequence in which elections are conducted in the country.

The order of elections has usually been Presidential and National Assembly elections holding same day before other polls, like governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.

But it was amended by the lawmakers to feature the National Assembly polls conducted first, followed by the state lawmakers, and the governors, while the presidential election would take place last.

Responding to a question on if the electoral body was going to implement the election order as amended by the Senate in 2019, Soyebi said, “Unfortunately, yes, if the amendment becomes a law now. If it’s assented to by the President, it becomes a law. We have no basis to disobey the law; we have to work within the law as it is.”

Soyebi refuted the claim that INEC was planning to file a legal suit to challenge the adoption by the Senate, saying that “there is no iota of truth in that.”

Meanwhile, appearing earlier on Wednesday on the African Independent Television programme, ‘Kakaaki,’ INEC Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, explained that the reason the commission register underage voters in some parts of the country was because the lives of registration officers are being threatened by some members of the community.

Responding on the issues of pictures and videos on the social media showing children registering and voting in northern Nigeria, Osaze-Uzzi claimed that when officials refused to register underage persons in those places that they face threats to their lives and have no option than register underage people to save their lives.

He said, “I agree that it is the responsibility of the registration officer to do that (refuse to register underage persons), but there are times that circumstances are such that where there is present and clear danger that he risks being assaulted or being killed, I think it will be unreasonable to expect him not to succumb to the pressure. But we encourage them to report immediately they get out of that dangerous zone.”

READ ALSO: PDP says INEC has questions to answer as under-aged voters have PVC

He noted that some members of the National Youth Service Corps taking part in the registration exercise have reported such incidents to the commission.

According to him, many parents came along with their children claiming that their children were over 18, even when to the “untrained eye, that child doesn’t look more than 15, but in such circumstances, you cannot argue too much with them. The law says the registration officer is entitled to act on some kind of identification or birth certificate or proof of age.”

He added, “But very often, they are resisted, especially when there are lots of people there. They are challenged in a charged atmosphere and they are there without any protection. Many of them are there in strange communities which they don’t know anything about. So, there is undue pressure on them to register at this point.”

 

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