By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Apparently dissatisfied with the pockets of skirmishes at the campaign grounds and politically motivated arrests of opponents since the commencement of electioneering campaigns, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has called for an emergency meeting with the leadership of the 18 registered political parties in Nigeria.
This is even as the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has said that the thuggery and clashes of supporters of different political parties are clear violation of the 2022 Electoral Act and against the spirit of the Peace Accord recently signed by the leadership of the political parties.
The INEC Chairman who spoke on Tuesday while declaring open a Special Training on Technologies for 2023 General Election called
‘Training of Master Trainers on Technologies for the 2023 General Elections’ at
Ajuji Greenwich Hotel, Gudu District, Abuja, described as worrisome the negative vibes coming out of the polity despite the efforts of INEC to deliver a free, fair, credible and inclusive elections in 2023.
Yakubu said: “Even as the Commission is working hard to ensure a credible process in the forthcoming elections, reports of clashes among parties and their supporters in some States of the country during the ongoing electioneering campaign is worrisome”.
“So too is the reported denial of access to public facilities for parties and candidates in some States of the Federation. Let me caution parties and their supporters to focus on issues and steer clear of attacks on each other’.
“These are not only violations of the Electoral Act 2022 but also negate the voluntary commitment by all political parties and candidates to the letter and spirit of the Peace Accord signed about three weeks ago under the auspices of the National Peace Committee (NPC)”.
Speaking further Yakubu stated that:
“Parties, candidates and their supporters should not by acts of commission or omission further complicate the prevailing security situation in the country. A peaceful electioneering campaign is critical to the conduct of peaceful and credible elections”.
The INEC boss posited that the Commission will continue to monitor the situation closely and will convene a meeting with leaders of political parties next week to discuss, among the other issues, the imperative of peaceful campaigns and equal access to public facilities”.
Said he: “In the same vein, the Commission will also meet with the security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) next week”.
Meanwhile, the Chairman has charged the 82 INEC Information and Communication Technology (ICT) staff who are undergoing the Master Trainers Programme on the use of technology in elections to take the training very serious.
According to him: “Over the last two years, the Commission has increased the deployment of technology in the elections in Nigeria. Systems and portals have been designed and developed to cater for different electoral activities ranging from voter registration and accreditation, result transmission from the polling units, the nomination of candidates by political parties to the accreditation of polling agents, observers and journalists for elections”.
“Of these innovations, most Nigerians are more familiar with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) which doubles as a device for accreditation as well as the upload of the Polling Unit level result sheets to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real-time on election day”.
Yakubu said these innovations have increased transparency and public confidence in the electoral process just as they are also part of the legal requirements for conducting elections in Nigeria.
He insists that the combination of the BVAS and the IReV portal have come to stay as a means of voter accreditation and transmission of election results.
Said he: “From the experience of recent off-cycle elections, the Commission is convinced that a critical success factor in the deployment of technology in elections is training. We need to build the capacity of the staff involved not only to competently handle the devices during the accreditation process but also respond effectively to any glitches that may occur during elections”.
“Our plan for the 2023 General Election is to commence the training of election officials early and for a longer period of time for optimal understanding of the processes and procedures in order to serve Nigerians better. A key component of this effort is election technology”.
“Today, we begin the process with the training of master trainers to serve as Registration Area Technical Support (RATECH). A total of 82 officials drawn from our offices nationwide will form the nucleus of the training. Over the next three days, they will receive intensive hands-on training on the new technology. Thereafter, they will train more officials at zonal level to cover all the 8,809 Registration Areas (or Wards). In turn, these officials will be involved in the training ad hoc staff for the 176,846 Polling Units nationwide”.
“I urge the 82 staff involved to pay special attention to the training that you will receive at this Workshop. Your role as master trainers is critical to the success of training at subsequent levels and ultimately the successful deployment of the devices during elections”.
“For this reason, the Commission will not accept laxity on your part. Much as we have confidence in your ability to understand and discharge your responsibilities to the officials you will subsequently train, there will be consequences for unethical behaviour or any act of misconduct. I wish you a successful training”.
Earlier, the Country Director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) assured INEC it can count on the Foundation’s partnership to training an expected 10,000 INEC staff who will be involved in the 2023 General Elections.
