…to present proposals to National Assembly soon
From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has set for submission, a proposal to the national assembly, allowing millions of Nigerians on essential duties to vote anywhere they are during elections.
Nigerians, who do not vote at the moment on account of the roles they play during elections such as INEC officials, security personnel, ad hoc staffs, observers and journalists who are deployed outside their polling units to vote either before or from anywhere they are.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu stated this, during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), in Abuja.
Madmood, said, “this review/recommendation report contains, an early/special voting for the millions of Nigerians who do not vote at the moment on account of the roles they play during elections such as INEC officials, security personnel, ad hoc staff, observers and journalists who are deployed outside the places where they registered to vote. There are also recommendations in support of diaspora voting”.
On the legal review, there are eight recommendations that require legislative action by the National Assembly. “Very soon, the Commission will make a presentation to the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Electoral Matters as they continue to deliberate on electoral reform.
“Among the major highlights of the Commission’s recommendations is the imperative of legal clarity in result management, with regard to manual transfer versus the electronic transmission of results.
“The Commission also believes that with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the use of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC), as the sole means of identification for voter accreditation on Election Day should be reviewed.
“Those who already have the PVCs can still use them to vote, but going forward, computer-generated slips issued to the voter or even downloaded from the Commission’s website will suffice for voter accreditation.
“This will not only save cost, it will also eliminate the issues around the collection of PVCs and the diabolical practice of buying up the cards from voters in order to disenfranchise them.
“The hardcopies of the General Election and Review reports will be presented to the public shortly. The softcopy of the Report will also be uploaded to our website in earnest”, he said.
