INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in his opening remarks at the Commission’s regular quarterly meeting with the media on Tuesday in Abuja.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said
that it would only do a nationwide pilot electronic transmission
(e-collation) of results in the forthcoming general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in his opening remarks at the Commission’s regular quarterly meeting with the media on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that for the Commission to do full electronic transmission of results there must be a backing law for that.
“The Commission is also aware of
the interest expressed by the media to learn more about the commission’s
electronic results transmission process, including its backend
processes.
“This meeting will include a presentation
on the pilot we carried out in some of the off-season elections
conducted by the Commission.”
Yakubu
urged media organisations to sensitise registered voters yet to collect
their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to do so, in order for them to be
able to participate in the forthcoming general elections.
He re-emphasised that the commission would not
create additional polling units for 2019 elections, other than units
created for the 2015 general elections.
“No new polling unit has been created and none will be created before the 2019 general elections,” he said.
The INEC chairman appealed to the
media to partner with INEC in tackling the worrisome issue of vote
buying which the commission had been working to address.
“We appeal to the media to continue to
partner with the Commission by making information available to us while
we work with the security agencies to deal with the violators of our
electoral laws.
“These include those who may be trying to
compromise our staff responsible for making the PVCs available for
collection by legitimate voters.
“We understand that some actors have been
going round hunting for our staff responsible for the distribution of
PVCs. We are aware of this and we are ahead of them, “ he said.
Answering questions on plans to introduce the
rolling and flattening of ballot papers by voters as part of measures to
address vote buying, Yakubu said that plans were in place to ensure
that it did not lead to increased voided votes.
“The first one is the quality of the ink.
You know you have quick dry ink and the certain type of ink that
immediately you thumbprint it spreads.
“We are committed to ensuring that we get the right type of quality,’’ he said.
He said that the initial folding would be done
by the electoral officer, and folding it from the top the ballot paper
it could not spread on the columns for political party on the paper.
He added that as the elections approached, the
commission was working to finalise its guidelines for the 2019 general
elections.
The chairman also said that the Commission was
committed to effective training of its ad hoc staff for the success of
the elections.
In his remarks, the National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo,
pledged that the media as a critical stakeholders in the Nigeria
project would continue to partner with INEC for the successful conduct
of the elections.
Isiguzo said that the forthcoming polls were
critical and that the world was looking up to INEC to deliver free, fair
and credible elections.
He urged the INEC Chairman to fullfil his
promise to ensure that the elections were not just credible, but should
be seen to be credible.
Isiguzo also called on security operatives not
to clamp down on the media during elections, saying that such would be
unacceptable to the media professionals and practitioners.
“It will be unacceptable to see the repeat
of what happened 48 hours ago where journalists working with Daily
Trust Newspapers were arrested and their computers were taken away.
“This is not good for democracy and I believe Nigeria is democratic nation and such thing should not be happening.’’
Isiguzo said that the union intended to also
reach out to the military and other security agencies with a view to
ensuring that they regarded journalists as key stakeholders in the
Nigerian project.
“Media practitioners are not criminals,
they are people concerned with going forward of the country and intend
to have a sunnier climes where all Nigerians will be happy to live in,’’ he said.
The meeting was attended by journalists and senior editors from various media institutions in the country.