Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Anambra State, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, has assured that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will soon overcome most of the challenges confronting the electoral body.
Orji stated this, yesterday, when members of the Civil Rights Concern (CRC) visited him in his office in Awka, the state capital, saying that the capacity to identify problems keeps the job going.
He said INEC employees were working for interest of the people and that there was bound to be problems in course of doing their job, adding: “There must be challenges, but over time we will overcome them.
“We have successfully conducted three elections in Delta, Anambra and Edo states. There were challenges with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which we did not notice before its introduction. We will get to the point when these problems will not occur during elections”.
He commended the successful conduct of Anambra State governorship election despite doubts in some quarters that the election would not hold, coupled with the several security threats, which necessitated directing INEC workers to close and leave office early.
“The Anambra situation was terrible. Our offices were bombed and many sensitive materials were lost. We could not access our offices for three months. If we had not conducted the Anambra poll, it would have given the impression that the agitators were dictating the pace in the South East,” he added.
He noted that Ekiti State governorship election would offer a good election process, as INEC was poised to improve on its performance, especially in moving materials to polling units on time, lamenting that Imo has surpassed Anambra as poisonous environment in conducting election.
Responding, Executive Director of CRC, Okey Onyeka said they visited the REC to present report on its observations of the November 6, 2021 Anambra State governorship election.
He pointed out that most of the issues that have plagued the conduct of elections since 1999 have remained and even worsened in some cases, including late arrival of electoral materials and officials to the polling units.
