The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, has committed to discipline any of its employees who may have acted improperly during the conduct of the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly Elections, including any ad hoc or collation staff.
At a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Saturday in Abuja, INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made this announcement.
He said; “As we approach the Governorship and State Assembly elections, we must work harder to overcome the challenges experienced in the last election. Nothing else will be acceptable to Nigerians.
“All staff found to be negligent, whether they are regular or ad hoc officials, including Collation and Returning Officers, must not be involved in forthcoming elections. RECs must also immediately initiate disciplinary action where prima facie evidence of wrongdoing has been established”.
He also instructed the RECs to work with the Local Government level Electoral Officers EOs to finalize Election Day logistics days before the poll.
“This has been our standard practice. Centralizing the process as was done in some States resulted in a delayed deployment of personnel and materials and late commencement of polls.
“RECs will be held responsible for any tardy arrangement or the failure to deploy electric power generators to collation centres or polling units where such facilities are needed. The Commission has enough facilities in all the States of the Federation. Failure to deploy them is simply inexcusable”, he declared.
Yakubu added that where they are replaced for good reason, they must be fully taught to ensure that processes are not hampered or delayed at any point. This includes refresher training for ad hoc staff members who took part in the previous election.
He asserts that when violations of any type are established, there will be redress, and he adds that any action taken by the Commission does not affect the rights of the parties or candidates to pursue additional legal remedies.
Yakubu stated that for voter accreditation and result administration on election day, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will once more be used.
According to him, the results of recent elections demonstrate how effective the deployment of BVAS has been in sanitizing voter accreditation.
“Since last week, the Commission has intensified the review of the technology to ensure that glitches experienced, particularly with the upload of results are rectified. We are confident that going forward the system will run optimally”, he said.
