2023: INEC reiterates commitment to credible elections
Joel Oladele, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reiterated its efforts towards conducting a peaceful, orderly, and credible 2023 general election.
This was made known on Wednesday during a capacity building workshop organized for members of the INEC Press Corps in Abuja.
The Honourable National Commissioner, Moddibo Alkali while speaking at the event stated that measures have been put in place to ensure fair play amongst all candidates participating in the elections.
Also in his remarks, Paul Omokore, Director ICT/INEC Headquarters who was represented by Lawrence Bankole, Deputy Director (ICT) said technology had positively influenced the electoral process, adding that the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) which has now replaced the Smart Card Reader (SCR) has been modified to include facial and fingerprint identification.
Speaking on 2022 electoral act, Barr. (Mrs) Oluwatoyin Babalola, Director Legal Drafting and clearance, INEC Headquarters recalled that on 22 February 2022, Nigerian lawmakers made 80 new provisions including the use of technology in elections.
Reeling out technical steps taken by INEC so far to ensure a credible 2023 general elections, the director of operations, A.T Yusuf represented by Bolaji Oge said plans had been concluded for the commission’s operations.
In his words, “The Commission since its inception has been working tirelessly and persistently to improve the electoral process, in order to satisfy the yearnings of Nigerians for credible, acceptable elections outcomes. The Commission has continuously embarked on planning and reviews of the electoral processes and procedures, thereby coming up with several new innovations to achieve a lasting and sustainable electoral process in line with international best practices.
“Challenges that are consistently cited as undermining competitive electoral politics in Nigeria since the beginning of elections in 1999 and which have led to some re-runs which also led to some Governorship elections going into the off-cycle include but are not limited to the following; Excessive monetization of politics in general.
“A ‘winner takes all philosophy’ pervasive among the political elites; The general level of poverty and illiteracy. The absence of clear ideological underpinning of the parties. Religious bigotry and to a limited extent ethnic chauvinism, Political corruption, Other challenges is in the form of electoral fraud which includes; Rigging, overstuffing of ballot boxes, over bloating ballot register, special treatment of voters and election officials, disappearance or destruction of ballot box etc.ii. Distortion or doctoring of results.iii. Annulment and falsification of the election result.”
To forestall and mitigate the aforementioned scenario, he added the Commission has embarked on reviews of the electoral processes and procedures and came up with several innovations and strategies to enhance the credibility of elections in off-cycle and General elections.
“The following are some of the key innovations to combat electoral fraud; Biometric registration, Use of biometric technology in identifying voters. Initially, only fingerprints were used but in 2021 facial recognition was introduced.
“Secondly, Computer-based registration of voters Direct Data Capture Machines (DDCM) is laptop computer-based registration equipment introduced in 2007 but fully deployed in 2011. It was replaced in 2021 by a tablet-type device, the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED). Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) with chip a chip-based, machine-readable voter’s card was introduced in 2015 which made it possible to use an electronic device to positively identify a voter using fingerprints.
“Another measure put in place is the Collation Support and Results Verification System (CSRVS). The CSRVS supports Collation and Returning Officers during the compilation and announcement of results. Using carefully prepared Excel sheets and files, CSRVS helps to confirm figures from manual collation and speeds up the process of results management,” Yusuf said.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, Segun Ojumu, Chairman of the INEC Press Corps described 2023 general elections as historic, thus the need for Journalists to be fully prepared for the task ahead.
“The journalists in this beautiful hall are the ones who will tell the story of the General Elections to the generations coming after us. The art of storytelling, especially the kind we do, imposes a huge burden and responsibility on us journalists.
“Our job is to be fair, accurate, balanced and truthful in our reportage. But for all of that to happen, we all must understand exactly what we are doing or looking at.
“Never before have we had an election like the one we are preparing for. The number of registered voters has now swelled, the legal framework is still being dissected and technology will play an unprecedented role.”
