Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it would release the report of the 2019 General Election before the end of August this year.
Consequently, the electoral body would commence review meetings with various election stakeholders from May.
Chairman of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, stated this in Abuja on Monday at the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Stakeholders Forum on Future of Elections in Nigeria.
This, according to the INEC chairman, will include review meetings of the Inter Agency
Consultative Committee on Elections Security, the media, political parties, civil society organisations; retreat with its Assistant Electoral Officers and heads of departments in each of the six geopolitical zones in May.
He explained that in June, the Commission would hold retreats for INEC National Commissioners, Electoral Officers and debriefing of selected Collation and Returning Officers as well as meet with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and Administrative Secretaries of the Commission.
Yakubu was represented by INEC national commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.
“As required by law, the Commission will produce the report on the 2019 general elections and submit to the National Assembly,” Yakubu said.
He listed the issues that would dominate consultations with stakeholders to include: deployment of personnel and materials; opening of polls, voting processes and performance of equipment; counting, collation and declaration of results; operation of the national situation room, election management and support centre.
Others are: challenges of violence, disruption of electoral process, kidnapping of key election staff, non-use of Smart Card Readers; audit of key processes and procedures; reverse logistics; storage of election materials; addressing electoral offences; handling of election petition and review of election observation report and recommendation.
The INEC boss said the Commission would propose far-reaching changes in the nation’s electoral processes.
One of these is the disposal of all pre-election cases before elections, he said, adding that the extant law whereby pre-election cases are yet to be concluded on the eve of elections makes the Commission’s work difficult.
He stated: “This keeps the Commission on edge to the Election Day. It makes it difficult for the Commission to produce sensitive materials ahead of time. The Commission will prefer a timeframe and timeline that allows for the disposal of all pre-election matters before elections.
“The Commission will work with the National Assembly and propose alterations to the constitutional and legal framework on critical issues that pose challenges to the conduct of the 2019 elections.
“The Commission will also follow closely the pronouncements and judgements of the various courts and tribunals on novel constitutional and electoral issues and incorporate them into our proposal and electoral reforms.”
Earlier in his remarks, Convener of Situation Room, Clement Nwankwo, called on INEC to commence an independent inquisition into the conduct of the exercise, even as he condemned the role of the Nigerian Army in the polls.
He recommended that the Executive arm of government should not carry out the inquiry on the grounds that it is an interested party.
“Situation Room is calling for an inquiry into what happened with the 2019 election because against the background of what happened and we step over it and lay it under the carpet and claim we are heading to 2023, then we are going to be in serious disaster.
“And I don’t think anybody in INEC should be doing countdown to 2023. What we should be going is asking the question: what happened with 2019? Unless we answer that question, there can’t be no countdown to 2023 because it means that we will all have wasted our time and simply pretending that we are observing elections”.
Other INEC National Commissioners that graced the event include Amina Zakari, Okechukwu Ibeanu; INEC RECs from Ebonyi, Osun, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Taraba, Zamfara as well as representatives of the Nigeria Police, Army, Civil Defence; Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Peter Ameh, among others.
