2022: Year of fine-tuning INEC’s procedures, political chicanery – Blueprint newspapers Limited

EMEKA NZE writes that despite preceding Nigerias main election year, the new year, 2022 is no less loaded with activities, ranging from two off-season elections to possible political chicanery and subterfuge by politicians

2023 general electionsThe countdown to 2023, Nigerias general elections year, has begun in earnest. By the calendar of the Independent National ElectoralCommission (INEC), barring unforeseen circumstances, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold Saturday February 18, 2023 and the governorship and state assembly elections in 30 states are expected to hold the following Saturday.

For 2023 polls, preparations are expected to terminate in the first quarter and elections and declarations of results will subsequently hold in the same first quarter to pave way for the swearing in May 29.

2022 as a preparation yearApartfrom the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) which entered the third quarter this January, this year 2022 is equally loaded with activities.

One of such activities would be fine-tuning and sharpening INECs technologies for the general elections come 2023, using two major off-season polls of Ekiti and Osun states slated for this year as well as the bye elections and the Area Council elections in the FCT in February this year.

FCT Area Council, Ekiti, Osun and bye-electionsWhile the Area Councils election is slated for February 12, 2022, the Ekiti governorship election will hold on 18th June 2022 and the Osun governorship election is scheduled for 16th July 2022.

The Area Council election scheduled in 68 constituencies will produce six chairmen and vice chairmen for the six area councils and 62 councilors.

There are also eight pending bye-elections involving three Federal Constituencies (Jos North/Bassa in Plateau state, Akure North/Akure South in Ondo State and Ogoja/Yala in Cross River state) and five state constituencies (Shinkafi in Zamfara state, Ekiti East I in Ekiti state, Akpabuyo in Cross River state, Pankshin South in Plateau state and Giwa West in Kaduna state).

INECs year of enormous workAcknowledging the enormity of task ahead of the commission, INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, at the recent meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs in Abuja last month said, Next year (2022) is therefore going to be a very busy year for us.

From the explanations by the INEC chairman, preparations for the FCT elections have reached a crescendo.

Expressing delight on the readiness of the commission for the election he said, I am glad to report that all the PVCs (39,208 new PVCs) will be available for collection from 6th January 2022 until 4th February 2022. The FCT office of the commission will provide full details of the locations and procedure for the collection of the PVCs in earnest.

The INEC chairman also spoke on preparations for Ekiti and Osun elections at the meeting with RECs: You may recall that in June this year, the commission released the timetable and schedule of activities for the Ekiti governorship election holding on 18th June 2022 and the Osun governorship election scheduled for 16th July 2022.

He outlined other activities associated with the elections thus: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 2 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.

Parties, politicians and intriguesOn their part, the parties and the politicians are putting finishing touches to their strategies to emerge first as flag bearers of their parties and then winners at the elections.

The year 2022 preceding the general elections year, politicians are expectedly oiling their machineries, intensifying their scheming, manipulations and manoeuvering to gain prominence, dominance and popularity in their parties and areas of authority and constituencies.While the emerging aspirants would struggle to gain more popularity and dominance to topple the status quo in both primary and inter party elections, the incumbent would play to resist and diminish the emerging power of opposition to retain political supremacy.This is with the view to putting themselves in a position to first emerge as standard bearers within their parties and then make the coast clear to win the opposition in the inter-party contests. It is indeed a year and season of intrigues, political chicanery and horse trading.This explains the spillover crises in the major parties into 2022, as a result of unresolved disagreements during congresses conducted to elect the officers last year.Despite the constitutional provisions that party chieftains must exhaust internal crisis resolution mechanisms, till now, cases are still pending in courts on who should preside over the affairs of some of the parties in the states.Expectedly, given the brand of politics in this clime, conflicts and clashes may be inevitable due to the crisis within the parties and polity may be heated up. The conflicts may be carried over to the primaries when parties would nominate their candidates.

INEC cautions parties on primariesBearing this in mind, Prof Yakubu warned: The Commission wishes to remind political parties that in choosing their candidates for these elections, they must abide by the provisions of the law, INECs 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.Any political party that fails to conduct democratic primaries within the timeframe provided in the commissions timetable and schedule of activities cannot be expected to submit the names of candidates to INEC for elections.With the adoption of new technologies by the INEC to make the electoral system full proof devoid of manipulations, many of the politicians who are used to the old ways of election manipulation might also try to put some of their boys to task to devise possible ways of thwarting or circumventing INECs innovations with a view to infiltrating the system for their selfish ends.

Responding to this scenario, a key officer of INEC said, 2022 provides INEC, another ample opportunity to sharpen and finetune its systems and strategies, preparatory to the 2023 general elections.The commission is not be sleeping. All year round, the Election Management Body (EMB) is now fully engaged in the conduct of off-season elections, bye elections coupled with Area Councils elections in the Federal Capital Territory and it has already hit the ground running.Ekiti and Osun states governorship polls this year are veritable grounds to further test run and consolidate gains of INECs new found technologies.The INEC chairman during the meeting with RECs last month harped on technologies and ways to improve them, 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.While reminding the RECs of the enormous task in 2022, the INEC chair said, 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.

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2022: Year of fine-tuning INEC's procedures, political chicanery - Blueprint newspapers Limited