By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has unfolded it’s level of preparations for the forthcoming elections in FCT, Ekiti and Osun states.
The Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu gave the run down on Tuesday at a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abuja.
According to the INEC boss, for the Area Council Elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) scheduled for 12th February 2022 involving 68 constituencies to elect 6 Area Council Chairmen and 62 Councillors, the CVR exercise was suspended nine days ago i.e. 60 days to the election as required by law. Adding that a total of 42,986 Nigerians completed their registration in the FCT.
He informed that the Commission has diligently cleaned up the data using the new Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to weed out multiple registrations. As a testimony to the efficacy of our ABIS process, 14,665 (34.1%) multiple registrations were detected and rejected. Consequently, the number of new valid registrants in the FCT is 28,321.
Added to this figure are requests for transfer of registrations to FCT, replacement of lost or damaged PVCs and update of voter records, making an overall total of 39,208 new PVCs to be printed.
He therefore reported that all the PVCs will be available for collection from 6th January 2022 until 4th February 2022 and that the FCT Office of the Commission will provide full details of the locations and procedure for the collection of the PVCs in earnest.
Mahmood urged all new voters to seize the opportunity to collect their voters’ cards ahead of the deadline and avoid last minute rush that characterized such exercise in the past.
On the activities for the Ekiti Governorship election holding on 18th June 2022 and the Osun Governorship election scheduled for 16th July 2022, the INEC boss said the major activity for the two Governorship elections is the conduct of primaries by political parties for the nomination of candidates for the election.
For Ekiti State, he said the exercise begins in the next 2 weeks, Precisely 4th January 2022 and ends on 29th January 2022.
While in the case of Osun State, party primaries begin on 16th February 2022 and ends on 12th March 2022.
Mahmood reminded that there are eight pending bye-elections involving three Federal Constituencies (Jos North/Bassa in Plateau State, Akure North/Akure South in Ondo State and Ogoja/Yala in Cross River State) and five State constituencies (Shinkafi in Zamfara State, Ekiti East I in Ekiti State, Akpabuyo in Cross River State, Pankshin South in Plateau State and Giwa West in Kaduna State).
He also called on political parties to abide by the provisions of the law, INEC’s regulations and guidelines as well as their Constitutions and guidelines in choosing their candidates for these elections.
The INEC Chairman who stressed that the Commission will monitor the primaries as required by law warned political parties to hold themselves to the same high standard of free, fair, transparent and credible elections that they expect from INEC during general elections.
He emphasized that any political party that fails to conduct democratic primaries within the timeframe provided in the Commission’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities cannot be expected to submit the names of candidates to INEC for elections.
The INEC boss stated that in addition to these off-cycle elections, the Commission must also continue to prepare for the 2023 General Election.
