2023: INEC reassures of commitment to credible elections

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has reassured Nigerians of the Commission’s commitment to delivering credible elections come 2023. 

Prof. Yakubu who gave the assurance at the opening ceremony of a retreat for INEC National Commissioners held on Monday at Lagos, also revealed that work on the strategic plan 2022-2026 and Election Project Plan for the 2023 General Election has been concluded.

He said, “My third responsibility is to reassure Nigerians of our commitment to credible polls in 2023.

“The Commission has concluded work on the Strategic Plan 2022-2026 and Election Project Plan for the 2023 General Election. Very soon, we will finalise work on the Regulations and Guidelines for elections taking into consideration the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022. The three documents will be published and presented to the public next month i.e. April 2022.”

The INEC Boss disclosed that challenges associated with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during voter accreditation have been identified.

He therefore assured of efforts to perfect the system in the forthcoming elections.

“May I also seize this opportunity to reassure Nigerians that we have identified the challenges associated with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during voter accreditation.

“In the recent bye-elections in six constituencies in four States of the Federation across four geo-political zones, the BVAS functioned optimally in rural, sub-urban and urban areas of Cross River, Imo, Ondo and Plateau States.

“We received no complaints from voters and no reports of glitches from observers in these bye-elections.

“We will continue to perfect the system in the forthcoming bye-elections and the end of tenure Governorship elections in Ekiti State on 18th June 2022 and Osun State on 16th July 2022,” he said.

Prof. Yakubu further stated that the Commission is also working on the distribution of voters to polling units across the country following the successful expansion of voter access to polling units.

“Very soon, we will roll out the plan for achieving a more balanced distribution of voters to the polling units. As always, we will engage with stakeholders across the board to ensure a more participatory approach so that the exercise is seamless and voters will have a more pleasant experience at polling units on Election Day.

“The Commission is encouraged by the response of citizens to the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise. Recently, the Commission devolved the physical registration beyond our State and Local Government offices nationwide.

“Millions of Nigerians have registered so far and we have been giving Weekly updates of the progress of the exercise for the last nine months,” he said.

He noted that the reason why they have not made the PVCs available is because of the robust system of cleaning up the registration to ensure that only genuine registrants are added to the voters register.

“The Commission is aware that new registrants as well as those who applied for transfer or replacement of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) would like to know when the cards will be available for collection.

“The reason why we have not made the PVCs available is because of the robust system of cleaning up the registration to ensure that only genuine registrants are added to the voters register using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) for fingerprint and facial clean up.

“I am glad to report that the Commission has completed the ABIS for the first and second quarter of the CVR. The Commission is meeting next week and the detailed dates and locations for the collection of PVCs will be announced.

“Before I conclude, I would like to thank the Development Partners for their support through the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) which has greatly facilitated this retreat,” he said.