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From John Adams, Minna
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Niger state has said that all the people displaced from their home as a result of the security challenges in some parts of the state will not be de-franchised as arrangements have been concluded to register them at their various Internally Displaced People’s (IDPs) camps.
This is just as the commission said that 39,900 permanent voters cards are available for collection in the state, stressing that the June 30th date for the close of voters registration remains sacrosanct.
The Chairman of the Residence Electoral Commissioner in Niger state, Professor Sam Egwu stated this at the INEC headquarters in Minna, the state capital on Monday during a stakeholders meeting ahead of the party primaries scheduled for Monday next week.
He however cleared some air on the going voters registration, pointing out that “there is no need for those who have registered before to register again, it is not true that previous PVCs have become invalid after a while”.
Professor Egwu nonetheless disclosed that the state recorded 34,000 invalid voters registration even as the continuous voters registration is still ongoing.
While giving reason for the invalid voters resignation, he said, “the invalid registration in the state may be because community members are being cajoled to register regardless of whether they had registered before or not”.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner explained that the stakeholders meeting was meant to sensitize stakeholders about the new provisions in the amended electoral act which will have implications for the way party primaries are conducted.
According to him, “Election is a rule-based game and the amended electoral act 2022 has several new provisions that will have implications for the way parties’ primaries are conducted. We identified the new provisions that relate to political parties and party primaries so that nobody will claim ignorance after they run afoul of the rule of the game”, he said.
He then lamented the attitude of political parties postponing their primaries in a bid to guess who the candidate of the opposition would be.
“Political parties are just postponing their events. It seems as if one party is watching the other to know who they will bring out. We are not enjoying the game because, at the end of the day, they would overtask the capacity of INEC to monitor the activities. But in whatever the case, we will wait and watch.”
The Resident Electoral Commissioner then noted that for the 2023 general elections, the electoral body will not only monitor the expenditure of political parties but also minute the expenditure of the candidates.
“We will begin to monitor the finances once the primaries have been conducted. We will ensure that candidates do not use state resources. We will scrutinize people and ensure that the right thing is done.”
Stakeholders expressed confidence in INEC in it ability to monitor the primaries and ensuring the right thing is done but they raised observations on the ad-hoc staff who would be recruited for the general elections stating that INEC needs to be strict with the ad-hoc staff to ensure they do not get compromised.
