Ten days to the first round of the general elections, the Central Bank branches across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have taken delivery of sensitive materials such as ballot papers and result sheets for safe keeping.
Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC States and Local Government Offices across the country have received non-sensitive materials including ballot boxes, voting cubicles, generating sets, among others preparatory to the polls.
Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee who made this known at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, said Resident Electoral Commissioners have been directed to provide security for the offices where the materials are kept.
According to Okoye most of the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioners have concluded the training of various categories of ad hoc staff and are putting finishing touches to other process.
He assured journalists and Nigerians that, “the Commission will continue to be open and transparent in the management of information relating to the 2019 general elections.
” The Commission is ready to provide the relevant information required for the professional execution of your activities. The Commission is ready to clarify issues and acknowledge challenges where they exist”.
While explaining the relevance of the fourth alteration or amendment of the 1999 Constitution to the electoral process, Okoye said, “it provides that pre-election matters shall be filed not later than 14 days from the date of the occurrence of the event, decision, or action complained of in the suit(unlike seven days).
“It provides INEC enough time to conduct bye – elections and provide grounds for the de-registration of political parties. The alteration of Section 134 and 179 of the Constitution makes it possible for the Commission to conduct bye- elections to the office of the President and Governor within 21 days rather than 7 days in the event that no candidate secure majority of lawful votes cast and the mandatory one quarter of the votes cast in two thirds of all the States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“It provided that in the event of an emergency affecting an election, INEC shall as far as possible, ensure that persons displaced because of the emergency are not disenfranchised.
“The alteration to sections 65, 106 and 131 reduces the qualifying age for the House of Representatives and House of Assembly from 30 to 25 years and that of the President from 40 years to 35 years”.
