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Tag: Independent National Electoral Commission

  • CVR: INEC registers 319, 106 new eligible voters in Lagos

    The Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ), Lagos State, on Tuesday said it had registered 319,106 new eligible voters in the ongoing Continuous Voters Registraton ( CVR ) exercise.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner ( REC ) in the state, Mr Sam Olumekun, disclosed this to the News men in Lagos.

    Olumekun said over 21,991 Permanent Voter’s Cards ( PVCs ) were distributed during the first quarter of the CVR exercise in 2018.

    The REC added that 27, 103 transfer cases were attended to and 43, 116 cards were replaced in the state since the exercise started in 2017.

    Olumekun, who expressed satisfaction with the exercise in the state, urged all eligible voters who had yet to register, to use this opportunity by visiting any of the 55 CVR centers in the state.

    “Those who have registered before but just moved to Lagos State need not register again.

    “All they need to do is to visit the registration centers close to their places of abode, where they will be given a form to fill and have their PVC transferred to a polling unit in Lagos State.

    “The same process applied to those resident in Lagos, who have registered before and moved to other parts of the state,” he said.

    The REC, who said there was improvement in the collection of the yet-to-be-claimed PVCs in the state, advised others to come out and collect theirs.

    He, however, urged new registrants in the first quarter of the exercise in 2018 to make effective use of the period set aside for claims and objections from March 26 to March 30.

    Read Also: Kashamu petitions INEC over Ogun PDP exco

    According to him, the period allows the news registrants to check for the correctness of their details, before their PVCs are printed.

    He said that the second quarter of the CVR exercise would commence on April 3.

    Olumekun also urged all stakeholders to join hands with the commission in educating and sensitising the people on the need to participate in the ongoing CVR exercise, to afford them the opportunity to vote in the 2019 General Elections.

    “The sensitisation, mobilisation and education is not the business of INEC alone.

    “It is also the business of every interest group to ensure that people come out and perform their civic responsibilities,’’ he added.

    The News men reports that the commission on Feb. 13 put the total number of new registrants at 231, 435 since the inception of the exercise on April 27, 2017.

    NAN

  • 2019: INEC targets 80m voters

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday said that the commission was targeting registration of 80 million Nigerians in the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) ahead of the 2019 .

    The Chairman of the INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said this at a dialogue with a coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Abuja .

    Yakubu, who was represented by Prof Okey Ibeanu, an INEC National Commissioner, said that so far, the commission had added other four million registrants to the voters’ register so there were around 72, 73 million registrants.

    He said that if the rate of registration being experienced was anything to go by, the number would approach 80 million by the time the process was concluded.

    He said that the commission expended between N115 billion and N120 billion on the 2015 polls.

    “Elections are not really coming cheap in Nigeria so to speak; the 2015 election cost the country between 115 and 120 billion naira.

    Read Also: INEC: over 600,000 PVCs unclaimed in Oyo

    “Compared to that of 2015, the 2019 election budget would be affected by the current exchange rate of naira to dollars.

    “Now you can do a computation, 150 naira to the dollar in 2015 and 300 to the dollar right now. You can then imagine what the present election might cost,” he said.

    Yakubu explained that the electoral umpire had done everything possible to keep the budget for the 2019 election consistent with the exiting realities of the country.

    “Again, this goes back to the question of concluding on the electoral legal framework because if you are going to do transmission by law from the polling units that means additional cost.

    “If you are going to have an additional round of election, that will mean additional cost.

    “So these are some of the issues that tie the electoral legal framework to the budget, to the planning.”

    The INEC chairman said that the Electoral Act provided that 60 days into a new year or not later than 60 days into a new year, the commission should avail political parties the list of registered voters from the previous year.

    He said that the commission had already complied with that, adding that political parties received the registered voters from 2017 about two or three weeks ago.

    Yakubu sought partnership with the civil society organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders on how to deal with high cost of conducting election in the country.

    He expressed the hope that in the long term, partnership was one major area that INEC, Situation Room and other stakeholders would engage to see how to deal with the question of cost of election.

    He said that there were already discussions going on collaboration but needed to be taken more seriously.

    He added that the budget for the election had been completed and submitted to government and the commission was still awaiting reaction.

    The Convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Mr Clement Nkanwko, said the essence of the meeting was to engage INEC on how far it had fared .

    Nwankwo said that there was need for Nigerians to know the improvement made on the ongoing continuous voters registration.
    He said this would enable the commission to know how it could improve on the process towards making 2019 poll a success.

    NAN

     

  • Groups urge women to participate in 2019 elections

     

    Women in the country have been asked to participate in the 2019 general elections.

    The Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Market Men and Women and the Inter-Party Advisory Council, made the call at a sensitization workshop in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The groups urged about 200 women from various markets in the Federal Capital Territory to register with the Independent National Electoral Commission in order to become eligible voters.

    They also encouraged those who are yet to collect their voter cards to do so while directing the women on how to get the cards.

    The Chairman, PRIMORG, Agbonsuremi Okhiria, President-General, NANMMW, Felicia Sani, and the Head of Department, Voter Education Publicity, FCT INEC, Ndidi Okafor, charged the market women to ensure that they vote for their preferred candidates in 2019.

    Mr. Okhiria explained that 70 per cent of eligible voters in Nigeria are onlookers in the nation’s electoral process as they constitute those who are not registered to vote or be voted for.

    He said: “This is the time for every Nigerian to get involved in the political and democratic processes. It is projected that over 70 per cent of eligible Nigerians are onlookers and they constitute those who are not registered to vote and those registered but stay away from the polling centres on voting day.

    “If a higher percentage of eligible voters take interest in the process and vote, the political fortune of Nigeria will dramatically shift to the positive side. With a population estimate of 193 million, only 15.4 million Nigerians voted in Muhammadu Buhari as President. The total valid vote at that election was 28.5 million, less than 30 million Nigerians. This is embarrassing to us.

    “Against the backdrop, Nigeria requires a comprehensive awareness and empowerment programme first to assess the situation and educate its citizens about the responsibilities, duties and obligations of the state and the citizens in a democracy; raise and sustain the support for democracy, and importantly, to cause a reorientation in their mentality to a state that enables them to engage democratic institutions and processes.”

    In her address, a representative of FCT INEC, Mrs. Okafor, said that although the first quarter voter registration exercise would end on Thursday, March 22, 2018, the commission would soon announce when the second quarter exercise would commence in April.

    “I am telling you this because we want a greater percentage of voters to partake in the coming general elections. People must get involved and market women and men especially must participate effectively in the elections by casting their votes for their preferred candidates,” Okafor said.

    On her part, Sani stated that she would continue to push market women and men to get their voter cards.

    She noted that her team would start requesting marketers to show their cards very soon in markets within Abuja and environs.

    “We are serious about this election this time around and it is important that each of us get our voter cards. We can only get the card when we register.

    “So I charge you to go and register if you haven’t done that, and get your cards because very soon we will start asking you to show your cards here in the market,” Sani said.

     

  • Melaye recall: INEC releases time-table

     

    The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, on Wednesday announced time-table for commencement of the recall process of the member representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kogi State, Prof. James Apam stated in Lokoja, that following the appeal court ruling that INEC can commence the recall process, the commission has fixed the last Saturday of April, 2018 as the verification date.

    It fixed the first Saturday of May 2018, for the referendum to be conducted in line with the electoral laws.

    Apam who spoke during a stakeholders forum in the state capital, said the process begins with thr invite all the electorate that signed the recall register to come forward and identify their signature”.

    According to him, if the process is successful, the commission will proceed to the next stage where a referendum of all registered voters would be conducted.

    He continued: “Here, voters will be asked to vote either Yes or No, to the question of whether they want Senator Dino Melaye recalled.

    Read Also: INEC set to take decision on Melaye’s recall

    “If the answer is able to meet the constitutional requirements of 51 percent Yes, the process moves to the next stage, but if it fails, the process stops”.

    The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, had last week ruled against Melaye’s suit challenging the move to recall him.

    “As a law abiding people, INEC will not do anything outside the dictate of the law. That is why we have to wait till after the judgement before going ahead with the process”, Apam said.

    On the continuous voters registration, he said that 210,000 Permanent Voters Cards were ready for collection, and employed the owners to collect them.

     

  • INEC says over six hundred thousand PVCs are unclaimed in Oyo

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said well over six hundred thousand permanent voters cards have yet to be claimed and or collected by registered voters in Oyo state.

    Specifically, the commission said a total of 649,183 PVCs of registered voters across the state were still in custody of the electoral regulatory body.

    The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Mutiu Agboke made the disclosure when he led INEC top delegation on a courtesy visit to the office of the Oyo state Chief Judge, Justice Munta Abimbola.

    According to Agboke, since the commencement of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, more than 13,000 new voters have been registered, noting that the ongoing CVR which started on January 8, this year, will end this week Thursday, March 22.

    He however added that, a second phase would be held soon with a view to giving more Nigerians that have attained voting age, and those that have never registered before the opportunity to do so.

    He said that those who have either lost their PVCs or have them defaced, as well as those who have relocated from one place to another would also be given the opportunities to have another cards or have their voting powers transferred to their new places.

    Agboke stated that INEC came up with two major documents, which are INEC Programme of Action and INEC Strategic Plan of Action, saying the two documents have been the guiding principles that commission has been working on, and that one of the major components in the documents is a robust continuous engagement of stakeholders.

    Speaking further on the CVR, he solicited the support of stakeholders as he raised the awareness and consciousness on the exercise, promising that “those, whose particulars have not been properly captured, will be regularised.

    “Not only that, for those who have moved from one area to another, you don’t expect them to go and do multiple registrations. We will help them to transfer their voting powers. For those who have also moved from one state to the other, we will help them with their voting powers.”

    Responding, the Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Abimbola, described INEC and judiciary as partners that must ensure that democracy is not scuttled in Nigeria.

    “This will be the first time that INEC will come to the court and I agree with him when I listened to him that we need to talk to ourselves. We are partners in ensuring that democracy is not scuttled in this country”, the CJ said

    He noted that the electoral umpire has responsibility of conducting elections and some other functions, while the judiciary also has the responsibility of administering whatever the conduct of the election is, whether it is in compliance to the electoral rules or whatever.

     

  • 2019: EU trains INEC staff on gender mainstreaming

    As part of preparations for the country’s 2019 general elections, the European Centre for Electoral Support ( ECES ), on Monday in Lagos, commenced training of electoral officers on gender mainstreaming.

    The one-week training with the theme: “BRIDGE Training on Gender and Election in Nigeria,” is directed at desk officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ).

    The News men reports that “BRIDGE” stands for Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections.

    Mr David Le Notre, the Project Director of ECES, said that the training was designed to encourage more Nigerian women to take active part in the electoral process.

    “Records show that women demography makes up the largest chunk of voters’ population, but the women in Nigeria constitute only 5.8 per cent of the political space.

    “In 2015, only six women were appointed into the cabinet while there were seven female senators and six female deputy governors.

    “Also in 2015, only one female contested for the presidency while four contested for vice presidency, one for governorship and five for deputy governorship.

    “These are indicative of low participation of women in electoral processes and government,” he said.

    Le Notre said the training workshop would familiarize INEC desk officers with the concept of gender and its importance in election.

    “I hope this workshop avails participants the requisite knowledge for effective gender mainstreaming in the Nigerian political space,” he added.

    Read Also: INEC uncovers illegal registration centre in Kwara

    Dr Adekunle Ogunmola, INEC’s Chairman of Outreach and Partnership Committee, said that the workshop was one of the ways INEC adopted to build the capacity of its staff.

    Ogunmola who is also a National Commissioner in INEC, said that the commission was committed to building an all-inclusive democracy.

    “This course is aimed at equipping our desk officers with the capacity to carry out their duties of gender mainstreaming in the electoral process.

    “It is one of the many ways the commission has adopted to build capacity of its staff.

    “The commission is committed to building an inclusive democracy where equality and equity are guaranteed,” he said.

    His address was delivered by Mr Mutiu Agboke, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Oyo State.

    NAN

  • PVCs and order of elections

    If, truly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had threatened to destroy 7.5 million unclaimed permanent voter cards (PVCs), the problem facing both the commission and citizens whose citizenship rights may be curtailed if about 20% of PVCs are undeliverable to their owners should be a source of major concern to many people.

    A hallmark of representative government is protection of citizens’ right to choose those who govern them. Most democratic polities see the freedom of citizens to choose as a sacrosanct element of democracy and a necessary condition for legitimacy of any government that claims to be democratic.  Such conviction explains why many democratic societies worry about threats to free and fair election. Compromising the integrity of elections in a functioning democracy includes any form of disenfranchisement, i.e. failure of the agency responsible for democratic elections to ensure that every citizen who registers to vote is provided with the certification that is needed to participate in elections.

    In democratic countries with proper organisation and logistics, registering to vote is generally seamless for the agency in charge of election and for citizens desiring to exercise the right to vote. For example, in North America and Western Europe, it is possible for citizens to indicate their interest in obtaining voting cards in the same place they obtain or renew their driving license or where they obtain or receive library cards. Citizens also receive voting cards through their postal addresses, without having to hustle for voting cards, as millions of Nigerians often do during election season. Most streets in the country have no postal addresses because there are no street names. The postal service is believed by many citizens to have withered immediately after the rise of digital economy.  Postal service is still active even in epicentres of digital civilisation. But in Nigeria, citizens are required to go to specified registration centres to first register and later return to collect PVC.

    Providing voter cards for citizens with a population of about 100 million eligible voters is certainly an onerous task. It is therefore not surprising that INEC is, less than one year to the 2019 national elections, still saddled with 7.5 million unclaimed PVCs. This must be the highest number of unclaimed PVCs since 1999. It is no longer news that millions of people in the Southwest could not collect their PVCs before the 2015 elections, with the result that the number of voters in 2015 was not proportional to the population of the region at that time, when compared with the other five regions. If over 1.5 million potential voters in Lagos State cannot obtain their voting cards a few months before the 2019 elections, the South-West may suffer the same fate that it did in 2015. Despite efforts of political parties to assist their members to register, making voting card available to each citizen of voting age is a right for all citizens and should not be treated as party matters only.

    INEC needs to explain why many millions of voters cannot obtain their cards in the third month of 2018. Citizens in the South-West have made their own problems known in many ways: letters to the editor; comments on the radio; and complaints by citizens at centres dedicated to collection of PVCs. Grievances of potential voters include crowded collection units and queues  that are too long for citizens to balance with demands of their jobs; failure of INEC staff to start work before 10 a.m. and their unwillingness to stay beyond 5 p.m.; longer distance than in previous elections between PVC collection centres and residential or work addresses of potential voters. A close family member of this writer had gone to collection centres several times in the last few weeks, without being able to collect her PVC, after moving on the long queue for four or more hours. No excuse should be acceptable for INEC, if just one citizen is unable to obtain a card with which to vote, let alone having over seven million uncollected PVCs that INEC is threatening to destroy, if not collected. For example, MKO Abiola Gardens with close to 400 housing units had a centre for residents for 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015 elections. It does not have a place within the estate to register or collect voter cards this election season.

    As a creation of military government, INEC has existed for barely two decades, thus making the commission’s use of military language sound attractive to INEC officials. While it is not surprising that the agency uses a language register that makes it look like an agency doing citizens a favour, it needs to be stressed that INEC exists to serve the interest of every voter. It is wrong for the agency to threaten destruction of PVCs when it has not shown any evidence that it has addressed citizens’ complaints about collecting PVCs in different parts of the country effectively. In the short run, the challenge for INEC is to expand and improve facilities for citizens to collect their PVCs without undue hardship, such as they currently experience.

    And in the long run, the legislature ought to re-conceptualise and re-energise the commission to strengthen the agency to function as its counterparts in other functioning democracies do. The agency should not have to conduct too many elections between national elections as it now does, gubernatorial elections out of season because election petitions were not settled as they should have been by the judicial wing of government at the end of past elections. Apart from by- elections arising from death or infirmity, INEC should be allowed to concentrate on getting ready for national elections every four years, not to spread its energy to conduct other elections that seem to wear the agency out. There is need for a creative response to scattered governorship elections that had plagued the country for too long.

    Relatedly, news about ‘face-off’ between the presidency and the legislature with regards to proper order of elections is, to use popular parlance, an unnecessary overheating of the polity. There should have been no reason for this, if the country has not failed to improve voter literacy well enough for citizens to be able to cope with the heavy paper work of conducting all elections on the same day. There is no good reason why both federal and state elections cannot hold on the same day. Both the presidency and the legislature have good reasons to be concerned about fear of Bandwagon Effect. Nigerians have shown on several occasions, as they do by waiting in long lines to collect PVCs, that they are ready to make the sacrifice required to sustain free and fair elections. Those who were adults in the 1970s would remember that the fear of Bandwagon Effect was the beginning of political wisdom in the era of National Party of Nigeria (NPN). We need to do what other democracies do: conduct all national and state elections on the same day to allay genuine fears on all sides of the political spectrum.

    Nothing is likely to be lost should INEC hire three sets of electoral workers to work uninterrupted for 24 hours on election day: from 6am to 2pm; 2pm to 10pm; and from 10pm to 6am; and another two sets to complete counting and collating on the second day. Though literacy rate in Nigeria is lower than that of many countries in Africa, the average voter can still cope with the complexity of voting for five positions: president, senator, member of House of Representatives, governor, and state assembly representative on the same day. Citizens can benefit from special training on how to manage the stress of such intensive voting, if they are convinced that it is the best way to avoid anything that can compromise free and transparent choice of voters. The fear that holding both executive and legislative elections on the same day will be too cumbersome for both voters and INEC smacks of exaggeration. For example, the population of voters in the United States is about double the number of voters in Nigeria, yet both presidential and gubernatorial, as well as Congressional elections hold on the same day.

    INEC should be strengthened financially and technologically to provide leadership for holding executive and legislative elections on the same day. One year is long enough to sensitise voters and prepare them for one-day election in 2019. INEC can ask that the day of national and state elections be a work-free one, to make it easy for logistics and for voters to concentrate on this important civic duty.

  • INEC inaugurates security committee on 2019 elections in Ebonyi

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has inaugurated a 13-member security sub-committee for the 2019 general elections in Ebonyi.

    The sub-committee was inaugurated by Mr Titus Sumba-Lamorde, the Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi Command and chairman of the Inter Agency Consultative on Election Security (IACES), on Friday in Abakaliki.

    The 13-member sub -committee has the mandate to articulate security strategies ahead of the 2019 general elections in the state.

    The News men reports that the sub-committee was made up of representatives from security agencies in IACES, including Police Army, Prisons, Road Safety, Drugs Law Enforcement Agency , Civil Defence, Immigration, among others.

    The police boss, represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Samuel Yomi, urged committee members to discharge their duties with diligence.

    According to him, the establishment of the IACES sub-committee is one of the decisions reached at the IACES meeting held recently.

    He noted that providing effective security at elections called for synergy and collaboration among security agencies and personnel involved in elections security.

    He observed that security was critical in any election, saying that problems were bound to occur if adequate security measures were not in place to secure lives and election materials.

    He said that the strategic security arrangements being put in place by INEC ahead of the elections was to ensure that no aspect of security issues was compromised.

    He said: “Security is not a one man business, it is a joint effort and collaboration and we have to synergise and that is why we have so many people who are security officials in the committee.

    Read Also: N731m fraud: Ex-INEC men arraigned in Kwara

    “Security is one of the essential things to think and talk about preparatory to any election and where security is in-adequate or lacking during election there is likely going to be problem”.

    He said that INEC was thinking ahead of 2019 general elections to put in place strategies to enhance security arrangements before, during and after the elections.

    Earlier, the INEC Ebonyi Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Godswill Obioma, appreciated various agencies represented in IACES for sending high level officials to constitute the sub-committee.

    He said that IACES considered the need to begin early to plan for security strategies ahead of time in its quest to ensure comprehensive security arrangements for the forthcoming general elections in Ebonyi.

    The resident commissioner urged the committee to come up with effective security strategies to mitigate any security challenges for the 2019 elections.

    He said that the inauguration of the Security Strategy Planning Sub-Committee was part of the early preparatory arrangements embarked upon by the commission to ensure credible elections in Ebonyi.

    The REC said that the national headquarters of INEC had directed states to mobilise internal resources and to put them in place ahead of time stressing that the inauguration was in compliance to the directive.

    “The election is less than one year from now and preparations for the elections have kicked off well in earnest.

    “Our national office has asked state offices to go back and put in place all activities that will prepare us for the elections of 2019.

    “What we are doing today is one of those activities; to think and plan ahead of time in terms of security.

    ” Security is very very important in our quest to achieve credible, free and fair elections in 2019.

    “We will not want to wait until two or three months to the elections to begin to plan, that is why we have set up this sub-committee on security strategy planning.

    “The team will begin now to articulate what it will take to secure the state and make it safe for the elections,” Obioma said.

    The sub-committee was given eight-terms of reference and expected to submit its report to IACES at its quarterly meeting in May.

    The terms of reference include: to prepare strategic security plan that is all encompassing, identify the number of election security operatives required in each of the 13 local government areas, among others.

    The sub-committee head by Mr Enyinnaya Adiogu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, thanked the IACES for finding them fit, and promised they would do a good job.

    NAN

  • PVC to serve as ID for artisans, petty traders in A’Ibom

    The permanent voters card PVC, is to serve as valid identity card for artisans and petty traders in Akwa Ibom state, the chairman of Akwa Ibom Independent Electoral Commission (AKISIEC), Mr Aniedi Ikoiwak, said on Thursday.

    Ikoiwak said this in Eket local government area speaking at the stakeholders sensitization programme on the continuous voters registration and PVCs collection in the area.

    According to him, the law establishing AKISIEC empowered it to collaborate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on issues of voters registration to achieve credible elections.

    He also visited Esit Eket, Ibeno and Urue Offing local government areas for the sensitization tour on continuous voters registration exercise.

    Ikoiwak maintained that the PVC was very important to the economic life of Nigerians, especially those who could not afford to own International Passport, Driver’s License and National ID card.

    He noted the PVC as a means of business transaction acceptable to the banking sector in Nigeria has no expiration date and does not cost money unlike the other valid instruments.

    “We have four valid instruments in Nigeria, the International Passport, Driver’s License, National ID card and the Voters Card, so for our economic interest, we need the PVC.

    “For the politicians, the PVC will be a serious instrument in 2019 elections.  In 2019, the card reader will be the only instrument for accreditation and it will only read the PVC.

    “The 2019 elections will be a different ball game, your vote will count and you will use the PVC,” Ikoiwak assured.

    He appealed to the people to go out and get registered if they never registered before while urging those with PVCs to evangelise those who do not have the voters cards.

    “Those who just turn 18, those who never registered before, those who wish to transfer or replace lost voters card should go to INEC registration centre for their PVCs,” Ikoiwak emphasised.

    Ikoiwak further advised the people wishing to transfer from one voting location to another or have replacement for lost cards not to engage in fresh registration.

    He urged them to inform the INEC officials of their need for transfer or replacement of their lost PVCs.

    In his welcome address, the chairman of Eket local government area, Mr Frank Archibong, thanked the AKISIEC boss for organising the sensitization programme for his people.

    Archibong commended AKISIEC for collaborating with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on mobilising the people for the continuous voters registration exercise.

    “This continuous voters registration is a very important exercise for us in Eket local government area.

    “This exercise will be used for many things. It could be used for national planning and revenue allocation, so this exercise is critical to us,” Archibong said.

    In his remark, the paramount ruler of Eket local government area, Edidem Etim Abia, said that those who did not have voters cards were not good citizens.

    Abia called on all citizens yet to register to do so because voting in an election was the only constitutional means to have the people’s representatives in government.

    He advised the INEC registration officials to desist from making unnecessary demands on the local government authorities and the citizens.

    “Nobody should pay for registration and INEC registration officials should be meticulous to avoid making mistakes in people’s names.

    Abia also urged the religious leaders to encourage their followers to go out and get registered to enable them vote for credible and godly leaders in 2019.

    The stakeholders sensitization programme had in attendance leaders of women groups, youth groups, political parties, traditional rulers and some clergymen.

     

  • 2019 elections: IFES pledges support for INEC

    The International Foundation for Electoral Systems ( IFES ) says it will give every necessary support to the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) in its quest to achieve credible elections in 2019.

    Mr Seray Jah, IFES Electoral Management Expert, said this on Thursday in Calabar, at a Workshop organised by Board of Survey and Technical Equipment Acquisition Committee ( BOSTEAC ) for Store Officers of INEC across the country.

    “We are very happy and privileged to support INEC in its stride to enhance credible elections in Nigeria come 2019.”

    He said that the objective of the workshop was to seek a unified standard of procedures for store management in order to enhance INEC operations, particularly in the build up to the 2019 elections.

    According to him, this has become necessary in order to ensure that all store officers of INEC act in uniformity and in conformity with global best practices.

    Speaking, Chairman of BOSTEAC, Mr Mohammed Haruna said the commission was working on ways to making store officers more commited and efficient in the discharge of their responsibilities.

    “This is in view of their strategic importance in the conduct elections, especially in the handling of sensitive and non sensitive materials.”

    Read Also:  Delta: INEC bemoans state of office in Patani

    Haruna said that the commission was expected to start taking delivery of materials for the 2019 elections, adding that this would increase the volume of activities for store officers.

    “I therefore urge you to take this workshop very seriously and to be committed, and be diligent in your duties, so that our department will excel.”

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Cross River, Dr Frankland Briyai, described the role of store officers in the commission as very critical to the success of the 2019 elections.

    “This workshop is very crucial to the success of 2019 elections. If you are working in the store and you do not have a good knowledge of the equipment in the store, you may mislead the commission and put it in jeopardy.”

    He encouraged them to always be proud of their work and remain focused, adding that the present INEC was committed to doing the right thing.

    The two-day workshop was being sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development ( USAID ).

    NAN