The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Friday released the legal framework that will guide the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.
Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who announced this in Abuja at a special meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to review security arrangements for the Ekiti State governorship election, said with the presentation of the Regulations and Guidelines, the Commission has concluded formal preparations for the polls.
He explained that with the coming into force of the Electoral Act 2022, it had become necessary to review the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines to govern the conduct of elections, adding that based on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act 2022 and the Regulations and Guidelines jointly constituted the electoral legal framework.
Yakubu said that he was glad to announce that the document is ready and will be presented to Nigerians shortly in accordance with the assurance of the Commission.
According to Yakubu; “The soft copy will be uploaded to our website with the link shared on our social media platforms.
“With the release of the Regulations and Guidelines today, and the publication of the Strategic Plan (SP) 2022-2026 and Election Project Plan 2023 earlier, the Commission has virtually concluded the planning processes for the 2023 General Election nine months ahead of the election,” he said.
The INEC Chairman said that in the next couple of weeks, the training manual would also be presented to Nigerians, stressing that the Electoral body would focus on election administration which included logistics, training, voter education, technology, sensitization against vote-buying, inclusivity measures, and above all, security.
He also said that ICCES would continue to play a critical role adding that the Commission appreciates the support of all security agencies.
Yakubu said that with only 15 days to the Ekiti governorship election, all the major activities that were supposed to be carried out at this stage had been successfully undertaken.
In his words; “I led a team of INEC National Commissioners to Ekiti State early this week to assess the Commission’s preparations for the elections. We visited our offices in several Local Government Areas, held meetings with our staff, had audience with the Council of Obas to solicit the support of their Royal Majesties for peaceful elections and met with the security agencies.
“We also observed the ongoing training of ad hoc staff and the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for mock accreditation of voters in some Polling Units across the three Senatorial Districts of the State.
“We will again return to Ekiti State shortly to meet with the stakeholders and for the signing of the Peace Accord by political parties and candidates under the auspices of the National Peace Committee.”
The INEC Chairman also said that the Commission had continued with preparations for the 2023 General Election, adding that Nigerians may recall that the ongoing CVR started a year ago.
He further said; “For the first time, the Commission introduced online pre-registration as well as physical registration at designated centres. As the deadline for the suspension of the CVR i.e. 30th June 2022 approaches, long queues are building up, especially in some states in the South East, Lagos, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“The Commission had anticipated the last-minute surge and therefore established additional centres and deployed more machines to register citizens. Unfortunately, the security situation in many parts of the country has not allowed full deployment as planned.
“In some states of the Federation, INEC registration officers were attacked resulting not only in the unfortunate destruction of buildings and loss of equipment but even worse, the death of a staff. This has forced the closure of some of the registration centres. “However, in view of the surge, additional machines will be deployed to some of the most congested areas to ease the surge. Similarly, the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) have been directed to liaise with the security agencies and stakeholders on the possibility of reopening some of the centres earlier closed because of insecurity, but in doing so, they must always bear in mind the safety of registrants and registration officials,” he said.
