By JOHN ONAH, Abuja–
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has explained that Nigeria would have ran into constitutional crisis if it had shifted those elections during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in year 2020.
National Commissioner and the Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC) of the commission, Festus Okoye, disclosed this at an interactive session with INEC Press Corp in Abuja on Thursday.
According to him, if the commission did not proceed with some of the elections within that particular period the country would have ran into constitutional crisis because the country constitutional framework is different from Constitutional framework obtainable in other parts of the world.
“our constitutional framework in terms of conducting governeship elections are constitutionally provided and constitutionally circumscribed and the moment you go outside the parameters of the constitutional provision, you will run the country into a constitutional dilemma and will need the doctrine of necessity to solve that particular problem”.
He noted that the commission was courageous in conducting some of the off-season some governorship elections even under the shadow of period of pandemic.
Okoye added that within this particular period and because of the global emergency the commission decided that it was important to accelerate and deepen the use of technology in the electoral process and this accounts for the dynamism of the commission in making sure that all the registered political parties filed the list and particulars of their nominated candidates electronically.
While commending the media for being with the commission throughout the serious period of pandemic, he stated that INEC was one of the first commissions that developed policies products and and protocols on how to proceed with election in a period of pandemic.
“when other organizations were postponing election even in advanced countries this commission developed programmes, policies and guidelines on how to proceed with an election in a period of pandemic so I think that is a plus to this particular commission”, he said.
“Before now when it is time for political parties to submit the list and particulars of their candidates some of the political parties that are marginalized will come to the gate of the commission and be fighting, some of them will submit multiple list in duration to their nominated candidate but since we deepened the use of technology and asking them to file the list of their candidates and their particulars and give access code only to the National chairperson at the National secretary of the political party some of the few challenges we have had relating to multiple nominations have been evacuated”.
“The media have also been applying for accreditation electronically and the same thing goes with the Civil Society groups and organisation and also international election observers”.
He further disclosed that the commission has mapped out very elaborate programs that will lead her to the 2023 elections and one of such programs was to expand the voter access in the polling units.
“The chairman of the commission has pointed out that the last polling unit in Nigeria were created in 1996 and that almost 25 years ago and those polling units were created with a registered voter population of 54 million as at today we have a registered voter population of about 84millions and no polling new unit has been created and this has led to overcrowding at the level of polling units”.
This, he noted has also led to violence at the level of the following units which has also led to poor voter turnout at the polling units.
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