As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prepares to conduct supplementary elections in Anambra state, the Civil Society Election Situation Room has called on the leadership of the Commission to be decisive and honest.
In the early hours of Monday, INEC announced that the governorship elections held in Anambra state on Saturday, November 16, 2013 were inconclusive, saying supplementary elections would be held in areas where elections were cancelled.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Civil Society reiterated its earlier stand that INEC lacks competence to conduct hitch-free elections, saying it is by being decisive and honest that those lapses observed during the November 16 governorship elections could be rectified.
It also called on INEC to publicly outline the measures that are being put in place to improve logistics so that the supplementary elections could be hitch-free.
The statement reads, “The Civil Society Election Situation Room notes INEC’s announcement of supplementary elections in areas where elections failed to hold elections or were cancelled and points out that INEC’s admission of these lapses represent an admission of the failings in the Anambra State Governorship elections identified in the Civil Society Election Situation Room’s statements issued throughout the elections.
“These lapses put a question mark on INEC’s preparedness to conduct future elections. The Civil Society Election Situation Room is concerned that the problems and lapses identified in the Anambra State Governorship elections are systemic in nature, and may not be sufficiently addressed before the announced supplementary elections in the State. The Situation Room is further concerned that INEC may still be bedeviled by the range of identified problems, unless it acts with the decisiveness and honesty of purpose required at this time.
“The Situation Room calls on INEC to outline what plans it has put in place to improve logistics so as to restore the waning voter confidence in the supplementary election in Anambra State.
“The Situation Room also calls on INEC to publicly outline its strategies for improving on future elections including the planned Governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states in 2014, as well as the general elections of 2015”.
