… earmarks N1.4bn for ballot boxes
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday unveiled plans to remove its offices from the 774 local government areas ahead of the 2019 general election.
Mahmud Yakubu, INEC chairman, said this during the 2016 budget appraisal and 2017 budget defence held at the instance of the House Committee on Electoral Matters and Political Parties Affairs, chaired by Aisha Dukku.
Yakubu, who emphasised the need for the commission to maintain its independence, also unveiled plan towards creation of single electoral database.
He said the sum of N1.4 billion was proposed for the purchase of ballot boxes and N500 million for continuous voter registration exercise in preparation for the conduct of 2019 general elections.
The INEC chairman, who noted that the commission registered 70 million eligible voters during the accreditation exercises conducted across the country, said the commission intended to phase out the collapsible transparent ballot boxes and replace them with plastic ones.
While responding to question on the non-patronage of locally made products, the INEC chief said: “Sometimes, it is easier said that we have manufacturers who have the capacity but when you engage them you realise that we may not have such capacity for volumes and this is not only peculiar to elections.
“Immediately you try to produce something locally, somebody rushes to register a patent and claims ownership of that idea. Right now, we have litigations running into trillions of people who said the patent for smart card reader is theirs.
“And they will get some favourable judgment that we should pay them some fantastic amount. So, while it is important for us to encourage our domestic producers, we are also careful about that particularly because some of the procurement items are time bound,” he said.
Yakubu, who did not mention the specific amount INEC would need to conduct 2019 general elections, said the commission was adopting strategic plans that would ensure a hitch free exercise.
“We wouldn’t like to guess to say we need an amount so we want to go through this laborious process of producing a strategic plan.
“I think it is better for us to do the proper thing so that we approach the executive and the National Assembly with a figure we can vouch for, and once it is approved we don’t come back towards the election with another supplementary figure,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Aisha Dukku, chairperson, House Committee on Electoral Matters, emphasised the need for the 2017 budget to reflect public accountability and transparency of the commission.
“Election management bodies face the formidable challenge of ensuring that stakeholders have trust in the electoral process. The identification and adoption of best practices in electoral framework and administration among nations have resulted in placing countries under pressure to introduce electoral reform measures.
“I am strongly advocating that this electoral reform measures will form part of the budget of INEC. It is important that the budget of INEC be made to show widespread public accountability and transparency of the commission,” Dukku said.
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