The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigeria Bar Association in the prosecution of electoral offenders in the country, Chairman of the commission, Professor Attahiru Jega has said.
Speaking during Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Jega said the commission has been steadfast in dealing with election culprits, and more than 200 of them have been prosecuted since 2011, including members of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) and INEC staff. He added that before the emergence of INEC, successful prosecution of electoral offenders was a strange development. But this responsibility would soon become that of another agency.
“We are partnering with the NBA. In fact, we have been discussing this partnership and now we are taking it a level higher and our hope is that before we commence the process of continuous voters’ registration, which we hope will commence by the third quarters which is July – September God willing, we also want to make example of those who have done multiple registration. We will do it, but it is very challenging. The best thing is to have another agency that can actually handle prosecution of electoral offenders,” he said.
He also spoke on frequent logistic glitches on election days, saying it is a challenge the commission is coping well with.
“I want to assure you that globally, there’s no country where you can say it is 100 percent free of this challenge of late arrival of materials,” he said. “Where it is necessary to move material by aircraft or helicopter, the Navy helped us during the 2011 elections. Where it was to move it in the riverine areas, the Navy helped us and even provided security to minimise challenges arising from the activities of militants groups.”
He also used the opportunity to address the implication of staggered elections for the country’s electioneering process.
“Certainly, some staggering helps the process. The kind of staggering we have now in terms of saying this kind of elections should take place now and then you sequence it; that kind of sequencing of major elections, I think has been helpful, it helps us to focus and it helps us to poll resources together and to deploy them appropriately.
“But if you take staggering to a staggering extent, if I can put it that way, really it will also have its own challenges. It means for example if we have to every election state by state in all the 36 states and the FCT it will take us three years.
“If you are doing Presidential election for example, you have to do it nationally and in every place because the results have to be announced for a candidate to be returned.
“Staggered elections have their limitations and what is important is for INEC to have the independence of deciding when to conduct a holistic or staggered election. If you legalise it by saying do elections state by state or do election region by region, you will create additional problems which are not presently anticipated.”
On permanent voter card, he assured that INEC will distribute permanent voter cards to all registered voters in the country before the 2015 general elections. He said the voter cards will replace the temporary ones issued at the end of the voter registration exercise of 2011.
“The permanent voter cards are chip-based carrying all our biometrics that was captured during the registration,” he said.
“We intend on election day to use a card reader to verify and to authenticate who is the true owner of that card. We believe that once we are able to do this successfully, then all these phenomenon of politicians purchasing voter cards and giving it to other people to come and vote with it on Election Day will be eliminated.”
