In a bid to improve the administration and management of elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has sought the views of the media, civil society groups, and organisations on critical issues in Nigeria’s election process that could be improved on.
The issues, INEC said, may not be at the front burner of the lawmakers, but were needed to appraise the challenges in the 2019 general elections, adjust or jettison some of the processes that failed to deliver expected results.
“There are issues which many of you felt you could raise for INEC for the improvement of the electoral process but only if you had access to us,” Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said at a review meeting for line editors in Lagos on Monday.
Yakubu noted that the avenue had been created for the press to air their perspectives on a number of issues, as they don’t just analyse events, but were also citizens of the nation.
“This period offers us the opportunity to make suggestions and recommendations on how to properly and convincingly domicile credible elections in Nigeria,” Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner, stated while delivering his address. “We must be careful not to fall into the trap of believing that every electoral challenge must be solved through constitutional or Electoral Act amendment.”
Part of the issues the electoral umpire presented for media critique was a constitutional and legal framework for the registration and regulation of political parties. INEC pointed out that the toughest condition for the registration of political parties in the country was the requirement of having an office in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
As a result, the electoral commission sought to know if the number of parties should be regulated through legislative interventions or place a threshold on the conditions for getting on the ballot.
The issue of deregistration of political parties trailed closely. “Are the conditions ambiguous and leave room for multiple interpretations?” INEC inquired. It further asked if deregistered political parties and their sponsors could be allowed to re-apply for new registration and be registered within 30 days as prescribed by law for new entrants.
On the possibility of shortening timelines provided for the activation of the courts and disposal of all pre-election matters, INEC asked if there was “a possibility of altering the constitution and moving timelines backward to make for the determination and disposal of all pre-election matters before the conduct of elections”.
The electoral body wanted to know if it would be better to vest exclusive jurisdiction in the Federal High Court in the determination of all pre-election matters, sought to know if section 68 and 75 of the Electoral Act could be amended to give the commission the power of reviewing declarations and returns made that are contrary to the law and the constitution.
Furthermore, INEC asked if the country should fully adopt electronic voting and transmission of results or if it should stick to its usual manual voting process and incorporate the electronic transmission of results into the existing process, and if the nation could have a separate electoral offences commission and tribunal to handle the issue of arrest, investigation and prosecution of all electoral offences.
The commission stated it remained open to new ideas and challenges, urging the media to assist the commission reshaping the electoral landscape that would engender the conduct of free and transparent elections going forward.
Monica Frassoni, President, European Centre for Electoral Support, who was also at the meeting, stressed the need to create space and recognition for journalists. She assured the Centre would deploy its many initiatives to support INEC’s strong relationship with the media in order to deliver clear and fact-based messages out to the public so people can exercise their rights.
“We recognise the value of their work as a pillar of democracy in Nigeria, even as such pillars are crumbling in many other parts of the world,” she said. “We owe it the media to recognise the sacrifices they make in what ought to be a simple pursuit of the facts.”
