NEW ELECTORAL ACT: Why we won’t implement e-Voting —INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday gave reasons it will not implement in 2019 elections all the provisions of the amended Electoral Act.

The new Electoral Act is yet to be assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, but INEC said should he eventually give his assent, that it will not be possible for the commission to implement some of the provisions, especially, that of electronic voting.

Professor Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) stated this while giving an update on the nationwide ongoing publication of details of candidates for the next general elections.

“We have gone really far with this. If tomorrow the bill is assented to, there are provisions that we can immediately implement but there are provisions that we cannot implement simply because of time. For instance, full blown electronic voting. It is impossible within the time-frame available which is 112 days.

“We have been working closely with the National Assembly and many of the new provisions passed in the bill were actually based on our recommendations. We prepared ourselves in such a way that in case some of the provisions become law, we would have no difficulty in implementing them,” he said.

Nigeria currently has 91 registered political parties; of the number, 89 political parties are participating in the elections, while only 79 fielded candidates for the presidential election.

Yakubu said while 1,803 candidates would vie for the 109 seats in the Senate, 4, 548 would be vying for the 360 House of Representatives seats.

He added that the commission would between November 6 and 12, publish the National Register of Voters nationwide to allow Nigerians file claims and objections in line with Section 20 of the Electoral Act as amended.

The INEC chairman also clarified issues on candidates from Zamfara, saying that the electoral body did not receive All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) list for Zamfara.

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“INEC did not receive any submission of candidates of APC from Zamfara State. Beyond that, I won’t say more because the matter is in court. Once a matter is in court, by our culture, you do not comment on it. There are three cases on the matter. So, we will wait for the court to determine,” he said.

Recall that INEC had earlier barred the ruling party from fielding candidates for elections in the state for failure to conduct its primaries in the state as stipulated by Electoral Act.

On INEC’s stand on the disqualification of APC from fielding candidates in Rivers state, he said the commission was waiting for details of the apex court ruling before determining its next line of action.

 

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