Facts have emerged that the postponement of the dates for the general elections was at the discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
We gathered that the shift was occasioned by the electoral commission’s unpreparedness for the conduct of the polls.
Our correspondent also learnt that the Office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, had had intelligence information as at December 2014 about the glaring deficiencies in INEC’s preparation for the general elections, signaling that the commission was not ready for the polls at the scheduled dates of February 14 and 28.
The National Security Adviser, Col. Ibrahim Dasuki, said the discovery necessitated his suggestion for the shift in the dates, stressing that the shift as announced by INEC was its sole responsibility.
Ccontrary to what the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, told Nigerians that service chiefs said they could not guarantee security if the elections were to hold as scheduled, the Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Alex Badeh, only advised INEC that the three troubled states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa should be exempted because security could not be guaranteed for the conduct of the elections.
The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, according to investigations, was “emphatic on the shift of election dates in the three troubled states of the North-East geo-political zone,” and not the entire country.
Also, a joint statement by the National Democratic Institute, NDI, and the International Republican Institute, IRI, on their preelection assessment mission to Nigeria on January 20 clearly showed that the electoral umpire was not fully ready for the polls to be conducted on the scheduled dates due to lapses noted in its preparation.
Even INEC, in its presentation to the National Council of State, NCS, indicated less than 100 per cent readiness to conduct the polls as scheduled.
Jega in his presentation said INEC had done all it needed to do to guarantee “successful conduct of the elections,” adding that “there are many other things that need to be done by other stakeholders, notably, security agencies, candidates, political parties, voters, etc, which are outside the control of INEC.”
But from his presentation, it was clear that some of the things needed to be done by INEC for the successful conduct of the polls were not actually in place.
One of these was the voters register which Jega said on February 5 that “the printing of the PDF hard copies of the register of voters to be used for the election in polling units and voting points has commenced in virtually all the states.”
However, Section 20 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) requires that INEC prepares and publish a register of voters 30 days before the date scheduled for election.
Also, the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, was also another problem. According to Jega, as at 2nd of February, 66,323,850 PVCs have been produced and delivered to states for distribution, representing 96 per cent, but only 45,098,876 were said to have been collected by voters, representing 65.81 per cent.
Of the over 21 million yet to be collected, Jega said INEC had extended collection till February 8.
He said: “There are a couple of questions to address: should INEC not conduct elections until every registered voter has collected his/her card? It is virtually impossible for every registered voter to collect his card.
“Second, what rate or percentage of collection is acceptable for election to take place? In this case, whatever percentage is agreed upon, it would imply that a date for the election could not be fixed until it is attained.”
Jega, therefore, sought the advice of the NCS on this.
He also said INEC assumed that since voter turnout in previous elections had never come close to 65 per cent, “PVC collection rate of this irreducible minimum percentage point would or should be acceptable for the conduct of the elections.”
On every need for the commission to conduct the election, Jega always almost concluded that “however, a lot more still need to be done by all stakeholders” which largely indicated that in actual sense, the commission was not fully ready to conduct the elections.
Jega in his submission to the NCS also said: “We also believe that it is necessary to take into context the things outside the control of the commission such as: attitude of politicians, political parties, candidates and voters and significantly, security for election personnel, materials and voters, especially in the areas of insurgency, which only the appropriate authorities can definitely speak on.
“No matter the extent of our readiness, if there are serious security concerns, the successful conduct of free, fair, credible and peaceful elections would be jeopardised.
“For example, we received a letter from the office of the NSA, informing us of recent developments in four of the North-East states, stating that safety and security could not be guaranteed during the proposed election period, adducing reasons why this is so and strongly advising that INEC considers the rescheduling of the elections by at least six weeks. This is a new development that INEC cannot certainly ignore or take lightly.”
Meanwhile, the NSA said that the military only advised that the polls be shifted in the troubled states only, the point which he described as in order.
NDI and IRI expressed concern “that millions of PVCs have not yet been distributed by INEC.
They also observed that the voter card readers, VCRs, which INEC branded as an innovation in Nigeria to strengthen the voting process, its “procurement, (as at January 15) is still underway and not all card readers have been delivered to INEC,” one month to the first scheduled election.
The DHQ, in recommending for the shift of polls in three states of the North-East, said only 13 local governments are under the control of the Boko Haram insurgents: 10 in Borno, two in Yobe and one in Adamawa which explains why it recommended the shift of polls in the three states, and not in the entire country.
Meanwhile, has given assurances that the new dates, March 28 and April 11, for the presidential and National Assembly and gubernatorial and state House of Assembly elections respectively will not fail.
He assured that the military and the combined regional forces from Chad, which is donating a 2,500-strong contingent, Cameroun and Nigeria, would clear the troubled zones in three weeks.
Credit: National Mirror
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