July 28, (THEWILL) – The recent disclosure by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu that the commission can conduct elections at the local government level in the country looks laughable on the surface and, on a serious level, quite debatable.
During his appearance before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Electoral Matters last week to brief lawmakers on the Commission’s preparations for the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, and its relationship with the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) concerning various court judgements, Professor Yakubu flaunted the Commission’s successes in the conduct of Council polls at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT as an indication of its capacity to replicate same in the 774 local governments areas in the country after the necessary complementary constitutional amendments.
Interestingly, the INEC boss also stated the likely challenges that may constrain such a mission. First, there is the issue of funding. By whom? The federal or state governments, which are lawfully in charge of LGAs? Secondly, there is this punchline from Yakubu. During the meeting with the federal lawmakers, he said: “You have to do something about the bye-elections if INEC is saddled with an additional 10,000 Constituencies, we will probably be doing bye-elections every week.”
Still, the numbers give a graphic picture of what is at stake. Currently, the Commission conducts elections in 591 constituencies. The LGAs have a total of 10,000 constituencies and 8,809 wards, meaning an additional 11,000 constituencies, where INEC conducts elections, but elections may not be held all in one day. These numbers pale in significance to the figures in the FCT Area Councils, which have 63 wards, six chairpersons and 62 Councillors.
The recent Supreme Court judgment that granted financial and administrative autonomy to the LGA has opened all kinds of permutations for the LGAs, no doubt. This one by INEC is not different. For a commission, often dogged by logistics, funding, technology and infrastructural challenges at every election cycle, canvassing for the responsibility to conduct polls across 774 LGAs will be asking for too much.
During the 2023 General Election, for example, INEC had to grapple with logistical challenges that badly affected the voting process. Devices like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), were back-tested and failed to work; it failed to capture the faces and fingerprints of registered voters. Many of its officers arrived late at countless polling units and voters had to cast their ballots late at night just as polls were not held in many other units. These internal problems of the commission could only be compounded by other challenges, such as insecurity, vote-buying, thuggery and violence, which often takes place at every election, all of which cast grave doubts on the conduct of the polls.
Indeed, stakeholders generally agree that the INEC has to be made truly independent in terms of its structure and the power to make appointments to the commission before it can be saddled with the kind of duty Professor Yakubu is suggesting.
This is one of the salient recommendations in the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Report. It is high time these recommendations are implemented, particularly those dealing with the review of the appointment process of chairman, commissioners and resident electoral commissioners into INEC.
