Election materials, officials won’t arrive late, INEC assures Nigerians

The Independent National Electoral Commission has assured Nigerians that it has concluded arrangements to ensure the early arrival of materials and officials during next Saturday’s presidential and national assembly elections.

INEC Director for Voter Education, Victor Aluko, gave the assurance at a Media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) roundtable on 2023 elections with the theme “Avoiding landmines, overcoming obstacles and conducting credible elections” organised by the International Press Centre (IPC) on Wednesday in Abuja.

Elections in Nigeria are usually marred by the late arrival of materials, with electoral officials arriving at polling units hours after the official commencement of polls.

Aluko, however, assured that the forthcoming elections would be different, noting that INEC had put in place necessary logistic arrangements to ensure that polls open early.

“I assure you that with the system we have put in place, the logistics arrangement and with the fact that we are employing credible persons as electoral officials, I don’t see anyone getting to the polling units late.

“What we do is we usually activate our racks and we move officials there a night before the election so that very early in the morning, they move to polling units within the registration areas. So, we don’t anticipate a situation where they will arrive late. It won’t happen I assure you”, he stated.

Speaking on the fuel and naira scarcity and its possible impact on the elections, Aluko said the commission had visited officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and the governor, of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to express it concerns, adding that he was optimistic that the assurances giving by both agencies would be met with actions.

He further advised eligible voters in the upcoming general election to visit its online portal to know their polling units.

He said the move was necessary following the decision of the commission to move some allotted voters from overcrowded polling units to less congested polling units within the same location to promote a stress-free voting experience on election day.

“The commission has launched “operation know your polling units” via its websites for voters to know where they will vote. We have also mobilized all our Local Government Areas (LGAs) officials to mobilise people of influence like community and political leaders to sensitise voters.

“Also, the directive has gone out to all electoral officials that before the first election which is on February 25, the voter register will be pasted for eligible voters to confirm their names on the register.

“For polling units that may be a little far from where people are voting before, we have men on the ground from the community and political leaders to sensitise and assist eligible voters to know their units. If we put all this together I think we are ready to do it.

“I want to conclude that as a nation we should ensure that as a country we do not put any landmines and obstacles on the path of our people as they prepare to vote this year.”

Speaking, Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, expressed concern over the recent court judgements on election matters.

He said a situation where the citizens would lose faith and trust in the judicial system won’t augur well for the country.

“It is of huge concern looking at the recent pronouncement by the courts. I would like to remind the judiciary that justice is rooted in public confidence. A situation where the public is losing faith and trust in the system won’t mean well for us”, he stated.

Executive Director of the IPC, Lanre Arogundade, called on security to be attached to journalists during the coverage of this year’s exercise as he appealed to security agencies to protect media professionals so they won’t be a repeat of previous incidents of attacks on journalists.

While urging journalists to be professional in their coverage, he called on President Muhammadu Buhari to find a lasting solution to the naira scarcity challenge.

“The issue of naira scarcity will also affect observers and journalists because they will also need money to move around. Therefore something must be done to ensure that we have a easy coverage. The emperor of Nigeria now is Buhari and as an emperor, he shouldn’t fiddle while the Nigerian nation burns”, he added.