2023 General Elections: INEC Promises New Innovations, Gives Pass Mark On Anambra Poll

By Ayodele Oni

The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has restated its determination to conduct the forthcoming elections, which kick-start with Ekiti and Osun Governorship, next year with commitment and application of more equipment.

Chairman of the commission, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu stated this in Abuja during a meeting with resident electoral commissioners.

The meeting, which was held on Tuesday, was first since the Anambra Governorship election held last month.

The INEC chairman used the occassion to review the Anambra Governorship election, discuss the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), preparations for forthcoming elections and other related matters.

In his address, Prof Yakubu stated that “Despite the challenging security situation in Anambra State, the Commission was resolute in our determination to proceed with what many believed was going to be an impossible election to conduct.

“Happily, the election passed off peacefully and the outcome adjudged to be free, fair, transparent and credible.

“As you are aware, the Commission piloted two important technological innovations in the Anambra State Governorship election.

“The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was deployed for the first time in a major election after the successful pilot in the Isoko South I State Constituency in Delta State in September this year.

“The BVAS has replaced the Smart Card Reader for verification and authentication as part of our improved voter accreditation process.

“The new technology was designed in-house by INEC engineers. Like every new technology, glitches were observed and important lessons learnt.

“We wish to assure Nigerians that the Commission has reviewed the performance of the BVAS in Anambra State and there will be a tremendous improvement leading to optimal performance in future elections.

“The BVAS has come to stay. So too is the uploading of Polling Unit results on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real-time on Election Day.

“We are convinced that the introduction of technology in voter accreditation and result management is better than the best entirely manual process.

“It also increases public confidence in the process. We will continue to deepen the use of technology in our elections.

“The second technological innovation introduced in the Anambra Governorship election went virtually unnoticed by many Nigerians.

“For sometime now, dedicated portals were created by Commission to handle different aspect of the electoral process.

“For instance, the nomination of candidates by political parties, including the uploading of nomination forms, is now done online.

“So too is the accreditation of election observers and the media. In addition, and for the first time in the history of the Commission, the accreditation of polling and collation agents nominated by political parties was done online.

“This has ensured that all such agents were provided with identification tags bearing not only their party logos, names and other personal details but personal photographs as well. In all, the Commission issued 63,745 identification tags to agents of the 18 political parties that sponsored candidates for the election.

“This has sanitized the process and made the identification of ghost party agents easier. We will maintain the same arrangement for all forthcoming elections, including the 2023 General Election.

“Turning to the CVR, we have now completed the Second Quarter of the exercise which commenced online in June and physically at designated centres in July.

“We have also been giving Nigerians weekly updates for the last six months. The Third Quarter of the exercise will commence in January next year.

“The Commission is aware that Nigerians would like to know when the exercise will be devolved beyond our State and Local Government offices to enable more citizens to register.

“The Commission is working on these concerns and issues and will issue a comprehensive schedule for both activities early in the new year.”

On Ekiti and Osun states Governorship election,  Prof Yakubu disclosed that “A major activity for the two Governorship elections is the conduct of primaries by political parties for the nomination of candidates for the election.

“For Ekiti State, the exercise begins in the next two weeks on 4th January 2022 and ends on 29th January 2022. In the case of Osun State, party primaries begin on 16th February 2022 and ends on 12th March 2022.

“The Commission wishes to remind political parties that in choosing their candidates for these elections, they must abide by the provisions of the law, INEC’s regulations and guidelines as well as their Constitutions and guidelines.

“INEC will monitor the primaries as required by law. Political parties must therefore hold themselves to the same high standard of free, fair, transparent and credible elections that they expect from INEC during general elections.

“In addition to these off-cycle elections, we must also continue to prepare for the 2023 General Election. We have so many physical facilities to rebuild, materials to replace, regulations and guidelines to work on, consultations with stakeholders to strengthen, capacity of our staff to enhance and several aspects of election administration to improve upon.”