INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega
The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday said it had begun compiling names of politicians breaching electoral laws in the country.
It said that information on such politicians was being passed on to security agencies for necessary action.
The commission’s Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, made this known during an interactive session with editors in Lagos.
Jega, who again warned politicians violating electioneering rules ahead of 2015 polls, noted that all the registered political parties were also guilty.
The News Agency of Nigeria quoted Jega as saying that it was wrong for any politician to campaign for votes now since no party had conducted its primaries.
“When you say vote for me for this office in 2015, it is wrong because there is no platform. This can only happen when primaries have been conducted,’’ he added.
The INEC chief however said that parties were free to hold their rallies as long as they did not campaign for votes for the 2015 elections.
Although he was confident that the 2015 polls would surpass the previous ones, he expressed worry over the behaviour of some stakeholders, especially politicians.
He urged such politicians to change their attitude and respect the rules of the game.
Jega said that the commission had substantially “placed square pegs in square holes’’ to ensure improvement in future elections.
“We have told our members of staff that anyone who does anything wrong will have himself or herself to blame,’’ the nation’s chief electoral officer stated.
He said that INEC had intensified training for its permanent and ad hoc staff to make them more proficient and improved the integrity of the biometric register.
“We have cleaned the register. It now compares favourably with any electronic register anywhere in the world,’’ the commission’s boss added.
Jega disclosed that the polling units in the country would increase from 120, 000 to 150,000.
He explained that INEC decided to increase the units because some of them had as many as 3,000 voters, a situation that “ is not ideal.”
“It should be an average size of 500 voters per unit,’’ the INEC chief said, stressing that the 2015 elections would not hold in one day.
Jega said, ‘’We did elections for three days in 2011, starting with the presidential, then the National Assembly and governorship/Houses of Assembly. In 2015, we have reduced the number of election days to two, beginning with the presidential/National Assembly and followed by the governorship/Houses of Assembly.
“We cannot do the elections in a day. To try it will be inviting more challenges to the system. Doing the elections in one day will mean deploying five different ballot boxes and ballot papers. We will also have to give illiterates too five different ballot papers.
“Logistics will be too enormous. Instead of moving materials for a particular election, we will be moving materials for all the elections. It will be cumbersome. It is impossible to do it in a day because it will be challenging.
“We decided to hold it in two days. We decided to hold the presidential/National Assembly elections the same day and the governorship/Houses of Assembly the same day. We tried to be rational and logical in fixing the dates.”
INEC has also adopted some security devices that can check multiple registrations, Jega said, adding that ballot papers and result sheets would be numbered to make it possible for its officials to account for them.
He said that INEC lacked the capacity to prosecute those behind the over one million cases of multiple registrations in its records.
This, according to Jega, was “why we recommended the setting up of electoral offences tribunals in line with Justice (Muhammadu) Uwais’ recommendations.’’
He also explained that the permanent voter cards being introduced by INEC were chip-based and contained details of individuals which could be screened by card readers at polling units.
The INEC chairman said voter registration would continue before the 2015 polls and the forthcoming governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti states.
Jega defended the conduct of the Anambra governorship election, saying it was not as bad as it was portrayed in some quarters.
On the call by some stakeholders that the 2015 polls should hold in one day, he said Nigeria was not ripe for it.
Jega also said that INEC had yet to register the Unity Party of Nigeria because there were some unresolved leadership issues in the group.
He equally refuted claims that the African Peoples Congress was not registered because of the All Progressives Congress.
The African Peoples Congress, according to him, did not meet the requirements for the registration of new parties and hence its non-registration.
“After looking at the documents of the African Peoples Congress, it was duly informed on why it could not be registered. APC met all requirements for merger. INEC was guided by the law in whatever it did. Anybody who feels otherwise can go to court,” Jega said.
When asked if he was not worried that the outcome of the National Conference could affect INEC’s plans, he replied, “We will cross the bridge when we get there.’’
He said INEC’s interactions with the National Assembly suggested that amendments to the Electoral Act might be done by July.
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