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Tag: INEC

  • Ekiti poll: Stay away from polling units if you don’t have PVC – INEC tells residents

    Ekiti poll: Stay away from polling units if you don’t have PVC – INEC tells residents

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State, Prof. Abdulganiy Raji, has warned those who have no Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to stay away from polling units during the conduct of the state governorship election on Saturday.

    According to him, Independent National Electoral Commission gave enough time for registered voters to collect their PVCs and lodge complaints before the process ended on Wednesday.

    He said although Rapid Response Squad would be positioned at strategic locations during the election, no armed policeman would be at any of the polling units so that the electorate would not feel intimidated.

    He said, “INEC in Ekiti is fully prepared for the election. We have 913,334 voters registered, out of which 667,270 have collected their permanent voter cards.

    “This means that 667,270 will vote in Saturday’s election.”

  • Ekiti poll: Tight security as INEC distributes sensitive materials

    Ekiti poll: Tight security as INEC distributes sensitive materials

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday afternoon began the distribution of sensitive materials ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial election.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the materials were being moved from the Ado Ekiti branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the headquarters of each of the 16 local government councils amid tight security.

    NAN reports that as at 1 pm on Thursday, long queues of INEC delivery vans were sighted at the Ado Ekiti branch of the apex bank waiting to collect the materials.

    Armed men of the Nigeria police, who were at the distribution venue, cordoned-off the premises throughout the period the exercise lasted.

    The spokesman of INEC in the state, Alhaji Taiwo Gbadegesin, confirmed the development to NAN.

    He said apart from ensuring tight security in the transportation of the materials, the commission was also tracking all the vehicles conveying them.

    ” All we are doing is to maintain our stand on transparency and openness even as we also guard against infiltration

    ” The other reason why we are keeping to our plans and programmes is that we do not want failure, especially on issues concerning late arrival of voting materials at all venues,’’ he said.

  • #EkitiDecides: Buhari storms Ado Ekiti

    #EkitiDecides: Buhari storms Ado Ekiti

    President Muhammadu Buhari will visit Ekiti State today to attend the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mega Rally at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado Ekiti.

    Bashir Ahmad, Personal Assistant to the President on new media made this known ahead of the State’s Gubernatorial Election.

    TheNewsGuru reports the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had said it will spend about N600m on the Ekiti State governorship election scheduled for Saturday July 14, 2018.

    INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu disclosed that a total of 667,064 voters are expected to vote in the election.

    Already, tension is rife in events leading up to the Ekiti election.

     

  • INEC budgets N600m for Ekiti governorship election

    …as police deploy 20,000 officers

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will spend about N600m on the Ekiti State governorship election scheduled for next week Saturday (July 14, 2018).

    The INEC National Commissioner in charge of the Ekiti election, Prince Solomon Soyebi, said this during an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Friday.

    Soyebi, who is also the National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, said over 11,000 officials would take part in the election.

    He said, “For the Ekiti election, the aggregate is much because when we talk about the commission spending on Ekiti, I can assure you that we are spending over N600m.”

    Soyebi noted that about 280,000 Permanent Voter Cards had not been collected, adding that the collection of PVCs would stop on Sunday, July 9 (tomorrow).

    The INEC commissioner said it was likely that once the distribution of PVCs stopped; there would be no fresh registration until after the 2019 general elections.

    He said, “Sunday is the deadline for the collection of PVCs. And for Ekiti, there is not likely to be any other Continuous Voter Registration exercise until after the 2019 elections. So, we have been telling people to go and collect their PVCs.”

    Soyebi rubbished allegations that the smart card readers had been pre-loaded by INEC in order to manipulate the election in favour of the All Progressives Congress.

    The INEC commissioner said the card readers would only be programmed shortly before actual voting and it was not possible for the card readers to be pre-loaded.

    He called on politicians to always provide evidence when making allegations as this would help INEC to make amends if need be.

    Meanwhile, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti State, Abdulganiu Raji, has said that the commission is not under any form of threat in the state ahead of the election.

    Raji said this during an interview with journalists at the end of the 2nd regular quarterly consultative meeting with security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security in Abuja on Friday.

    He also said that there was no room for rigging in the election given the kind of structure that has been put in place by the commission.

    On the insinuation that the election may be rigged, Ekiti REC said that the word rigging should be wiped off from the country’s electoral system.

    He said, “I don’t know what you want to rig again with the kind of structure we have put in place in INEC. That is what we have been explaining to the people of Ekiti State.”

    Also speaking, the Commissioner of Police for Ekiti state, Mr. Bello Ahmed, said over 20,000 security personnel would be involved in the exercise.

    The CP said the police would deploy 16,000 of its personnel while other security agencies would make up the remaining number.

    On measures put in place, Ahmed said that all the likely flash points in the state had been identified and robust security measures put in place.

     

  • 2019: INEC may suspend Continuous Voter Registration in August

    Indications emerged on Thursday that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may suspend the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in August.

    The hint emerged during INEC quarterly consultative meeting with the media on Thursday in Abuja.

    INEC at the meeting stated that it needed to suspend the exercise in good time in order to complete the procedures required for data processing, production and distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of 2019 general elections.

    The Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) states that “the registration of voters, updating and revision of register voters under this section shall stop not later than 60 days before any election covered by this Act’’.

    INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, speaking at the meeting, said from previous experience, the timeline required from the close of registration to the point of production and issuance of PVCs to prospective voters was about 120 days.”

    “This time span is required for the purpose of claims and objections and other backed activities including running the Business Rules and Automated Fingers Identification System (AFIS).”

    “Another 30 days is required from the date of PVC production to the point of issuance to registered voters for the purpose of quality assurance, packaging and movement from the Central Store to the respective state and Local Government Area offices.’’

    Yakubu also disclosed that the commission had ended CVR in Ekiti and Osun states ahead of 2019 general election.

    He said that the commission had already concluded the exercise at ward level in the two states where governorship elections will be conducted in July and September respectively.

    Yakubu also said that the commission would give the needed attention to collection of PVCs to ensure that the prospective owners of uncollected cards did so ahead of 2019.

    Clarifying the commission’s decision to enhance Smart Card Readers (SCRs) ahead of 2019 general election, Yakubu said it was to improve the functionality of the existing SCRs, adding that it was not to buy new ones.

    Meanwhile, the media executives in a communiqué resolved that the Commission should ensure that all qualified Nigerians were registered.

    The communiqué was jointly signed by Austin Maho, Editor Nigeria Pilot; Gbenga Aruleba, Head Reportorial, African Independent Television; for the media and Malam Mohamed Haruna, INEC National Commissioner.

    The media executives, however, urged INEC to take cognisance of the time required for the processing of the data as well as the production and collection of the PVCs.

    They suggested that the registration should terminate in the middle of August 2018, while also calling on INEC to educate Nigerians accordingly.

    On PVC Collection the media executives expressed concern over the high level of uncollected PVCs nationwide and advised that INEC devise innovative ways to ensure that more Nigerians collect their PVCs.

    The media called on Nigerians to come out to collect their PVCs as a matter of urgency. While is resolved to assist INEC with ideas to sensitise Nigerians on the need to collect their PVCs.

    Other presentations at the meeting included INEC’s preparations for the Ekiti governorship election, the collection of PVCs.

    There was also a demonstration of the sample ballot paper for the 2019 general elections designed to accommodate the large number of registered political parties that may participate.

    The meeting also had a preview of the Polling Unit Result Display Form (Form ECGOE) and the specimen ballot paper to be used for the Ekiti Governorship Election.

  • Uncollected PVCs: INEC will do its best ahead 2019 – Yakubu

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would continue to do its best to ensure that registered voters collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of 2019 elections.

    Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

    Yakubu recalled that over seven million PVCs were not collected from the 2015 general elections.
    “We have been trying our best but so far only a little over 500,000 cards have been collected nationwide.

    “We will continue to do whatever we can to ensure that the cards were collected ahead of the next general elections,” he said, adding that the commission was emphasising on collection than distribution.

    According to Yakubu, we are emphasising on collection because we want the true owners of the cards to collect them rather than by proxy with the possibility that the cards may end up in wrong hands.

    On whether the commission would patronise domestic printers in the printing of ballot papers for 2019 elections, he said “the first priority of INEC has been to patronise indigenous printers.

    “Since the 2015 general elections INEC has conducted elections in 180 constituencies and in none of these constituencies were the sensitive and non-sensitive materials printed out of the country.

    “As a matter of course, for sometimes now the commission does not engaged foreign printers directly. We engage Nigerian printers who may have partnership with printers outside the country.

    “So, our priority is to patronise Nigeria printers and Nigerian service providers; that policy remains unchanged.’’

    The chairman said that INEC was working with the security agencies charged with responsibilities to provide security for elections to ensure peaceful exercises in 2019.

    “The security agencies have assured and reassured us that they will provide security for the general elections.’’

    He also disclosed that the commission had benefited tremendously from the implementation of the recommendations from stakeholders.

    These, according to him, include recommendations from domestic election observers, media, civil society organisations and international observers, including African Union, European Union, Commonwealth and ECOWAS.

    Yakubu said that one of the implemented recommendations was simultaneous accreditation and voting on the day of election.

    “We have been implementing those recommendations, particularly those that can be implemented by the commission.

    “Remember there are three categories of those recommendations – those that can be implemented by pricking our policies, those that can be implemented through amendment of framework for conducting elections, and those that can be implemented by executive actions.

    “We have taken actions on all the three stages,’’ he said.

    On the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti, the chairman said that INEC was committed and focused on delivering credible polls in spite of all accusations.

    “I want to assure the good people of Ekiti that the election will not only be free and fair, but that only their votes will determine who becomes the next governor of the state,’’ he stated.

    He said that the commission had been preparing for the election in terms of recruitment and training of ad hoc staff and deployment of logistics.

    “We have delivered all the non-sensitive materials to Ekiti and we are tracking everything.

    “We are prepared for Ekiti the same way we are prepared for all other elections.

    “We are confident with the level of preparations that we have made for the election and we will have a good outcome,’’ Yakubu stated

  • 2019: We may register more political parties – INEC

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will continue to register any association that meets the legal requirements for registration as political party ahead of 2019 general elections.

    The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen on Sunday in Lagos.

    Yakubu, however, said that any party registered six months to the general elections would not be allowed to participate in the elections.

    “Once associations meet the legal requirements as political parties, the commission is under obligation to register them, but the law also provides for a period of six months to general elections.

    “It states that any association registered as a political party six months to the election cannot participate in the general elections.

    “We have 68 political parties at the moment. As at last week, we had received applications from 130 associations for registration as political parties.

    “So, we will continue to register political parties based on the position of the law.’’

    He noted that as part of its duties, the commission would do what the law required of it, saying “if we don’t, they will go to the court and the court will order the commission to register them as political parties.

    “But, we will not allow the commission to be dragged to court over a matter which we have responsibility under the law. So, we will continue to do the needful.’’

    On why INEC was yet to conduct bye-election to fill vacancies created by death of some lawmakers, Mr Yakubu said the commission was yet to receive notification of those vacancies.

    He said that while INEC had the responsibility to conduct bye-elections to fill vacancies in National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly, it had to be notified of such vacancies.

    At the moment there are three vacancies in the National Assembly and two in House of Assembly of two states.

    The Senate lost Ali Wakili (Bauchi South) in March and Mustapha Bukar (Kastina North) in April while House of Representatives lost Buba Jubril (Lokoja/Koto Constituency), Kogi.

    Taraba House of Assembly lost Hosea Ibi (Takun I Constituency) in January and Stephen Ukpukpen of Obudu I Constituency, Cross River House of Assembly died in March.

    Yakubu said the procedure for bye-election was that the presiding officers of the various legislative houses would communicate to the commission declaring vacancy “on the basis on which INEC will conduct bye-elections.

    “The law says once we receive such a declaration of vacancy the commission must conduct bye-election within 30 days.

    “As soon as we receive the communication, INEC will kick start the process that will lead to the conduct of bye-elections.

    “Remember we received such a communication in respect of Ibarapa East State Constituency in Oyo state, caused by the unfortunate death of the former Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, who died recently.
    “We have since conducted the bye-election to fill the vacancy. So we are waiting for communication.’’

    He said that INEC was in touch with the presiding officers, particularly of Taraba House of Assembly and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate.

    “We hope very soon appropriate communication will be convened to the commission on the basis to which we conduct bye-elections.’’

    Yakubu said that as a matter of procedure, INEC had already instructed its Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in the affected states to commence background preparations.

    “So, as soon as we receive the vacancies, we will kick-start the process.’’

     

  • 2019: Nigerians urge INEC to reconsider independent candidacy

    2019: Nigerians urge INEC to reconsider independent candidacy

    A cross-section of Nigerians in Switzerland on Tuesday urged INEC to join the comity of democratic nations by mainstreaming independent candidacy in the electoral process in 2019.

    They made the call against the backdrop of the nation’s Democracy Day celebration.

    INEC had opposed the amendment of the constitution that sought to provide for the participation of independent candidates in election process.

    INEC decision stemmed from the possibility of independent candidacy undermining the existence of political parties in the country.

    Speaking to the Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Domino Frank, a member of the Swiss-based Migration and Development Platform said that independent candidacy in election would further deepen the nation’s democracy.

    Frank who is an expert on peace and conflict resolution noted that since 1999, electorates have had limited choices in voting as the same politicians always emerged as flag bearers.

    I support the emergence of individuals who wants to stand for election independently “

    “ many countries have recorded success in this, we should move away from recycling same politicians, especially those with track record of corruption”

    Frank also urged political parties to come up with clear and implementable manifesto that would reflect the will of the people.

    According to him, such manifestation should also make leaders accountable for their actions.

    “There is much greater value in democracy that we are yet to benefit”

    “ the political arena is polluted and politicians thrives on ethnicity and religion to destabilise the polity” He stressed.

    He further urged Nigerians to register and get the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) in order to perform their civic responsibility and to have a voice in the electoral process.

    Similarly, Mr Linus Ikpi, a Human Rights activist in Geneva told NAN in a telephone interview that the nation’s democracy had strengthen over the years owing to the resolve of the military to remain in the barracks.

    “Looking back to 1999, we have made a lot of progress, and learnt from mistake of the past”

    however, in order to deepen democracy and its values, we need to provide a platform for all to participate “

    “ There are credible candidates who do not wish to be part of any political party, these people should be considered and given an opportunity to run for office”

    “ Let us take example from France, Emmanuel Macron, came from the blues, formed a party within a year and emerged as president”

    “ He couldn’t have stood a chance if he ran for primaries in any of the existing parties” Ikpi noted.

    He further commended President Muhammadu Buhari for delivering democracy gains by channeling monies recovered from corruption into developmental projects.

    Others who spoke were unanimous in their call for independent candidacy in the 2019 elections.

  • Breaking: Cyril Ogodo emerges Delta APC chairman

    Olorogun Cyril Ogodo, former Deputy Chairman of the Delta State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged as the new state chairman of the party.

    TheNewsGuru reports Ogodo emerged the state party chairman after a keenly contested congress election on Monday.

    Ogodo, who hails from Sapele in Delta Central Senatorial District, defeated his close rival, Fred Obe, who hails from Ozoro in Isoko North Local Government Area, Delta South.

    Aside from the chairmanship position which was contested, other positions were returned unopposed after a voice confirmation by the delegates.

    While Ogodo scored 731 votes, Obe scored 99 votes. Thirteen votes were voided.

    The Congress, which was held under tight security, was generally peaceful, as delegates from the 25 local government areas of the state filed out to elect the new State Executive Committee.

    The exercise, monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, was conducted by the Eugine Udoh-led State Congress Committee approved by the APC National Working Committee.

     

  • Delta: INEC receives 168,402 PVCs for collection

    Delta: INEC receives 168,402 PVCs for collection

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Delta said it has received 168,402 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for collection by residents of the state.

    Mrs Rose Orianran-Anthony, the Administrative Secretary of INEC in Delta, said that the figures included those that applied for transfer within the state and outside.

    She said that the commission had fixed May 21 for the collection of the PVCs for those who registered in the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR).

    Orianran-Anthony said that the commission was not distributing PVCs but people were to come forward to collect.

    She, however, said that the commission had a total of 152,239 uncollected PVCs in the state.

    She expressed her displeasure over the uncollected PVCs stressing that INEC had to overcome several challenges before the PVCs could be produced.

    Orianran-Anthony said that it was discouraging that after going through the process the PVCs were left unclaimed.

    She appealed to the residents of the state to come forward for their PVCs, adding that it was their power to vote and they should use it wisely.

    The Administrative Secretary also said that 30 new machines had been deployed in the state to enhance the registration process.

    She said that 2019 election was exactly 274 days away from now and the commission was already in election mood as numerous pre-election activities had commenced.