From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has called on the Federal Government and National Assembly, to enact law separating the registration and regulation of political parties from conducting election proper.
INEC boss, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, made the call while having the last Consultative Meeting of the year with the Residents Electoral Commissioners in Abuja, Thursday.
Prof. Mahmood said, separating the above to another new agency will unbundle the Commission’s work and making it easy to function more efficiently.
Similarly, it said that the Commission will step up action on voter access and distribution to Polling Units.
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“As a matter of urgency, the Commission also intends to develop protocols for the cleaning up of the voters’ register in collaboration with other agencies such as the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the National Population Commission (NPC).
“Other areas of reform include advocacy for affirmative action for greater participation of under-represented groups, a more robust voter education and public communication to combat fake news and misinformation.
“Furthermore, the Commission intends to review the mechanisms for a more effective implementation of agreements on logistics with the transport unions and other service providers by consolidating on the recent experience with early deployment and commencement of elections in the recent Ondo State Governorship election.
“With the conclusion of five major off-cycle Governorship elections and nine out of 21 bye-elections since the 2023 General Election, this is the most appropriate time for us to commence the implementation of the recommendations arising from our review of the General Election.
“The Commission has identified 142 recommendations dealing with the general state of preparedness, voter management, voter education and public communication, political parties and candidate management, electoral operations and logistics management, election officials and personnel, partnership and collaboration, monitoring and supervision, election technology, voting and result management, election security, electoral offences and the electoral legal framework.
“Out of the 142 recommendations, 86 require administrative action by the Commission. This is followed by 48 recommendations that require action by a variety of stakeholders, including security agencies, mobile network operators, statutory bodies, political parties, transport unions, civil society organisations and the media”, Yakubu averred.
