How We Intend To Stop Inconclusive Elections — INEC

Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is to propose amendments to its guidelines to stem the spate of inconclusive elections through removing the eight million uncollected Permanent Voter Cards from its assessment of elections in the country.

Vanguard report continues:

Speaking to newsmen, weekend, INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, also denied claims that it had received legal advice from the Attorney General of the Federation on legal knots that followed the inconclusive governorship election in Kogi State and the judicial tango that followed the court judgment on Abia State governorship election.

Yakubu, who was flanked by a national commissioner, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, and Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, also disclosed that the commission had, under his watch, conducted 137 re-run elections flowing from the 680 court cases filed against the commission after the 2015 elections.

Yakubu also lamented the avalanche of litigation facing the commission, and in an apparent reference to the ongoing crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, noted that the party had in the last three months been faced with 11 court orders from courts of coordinate jurisdiction, many of which were contradictory.

Noting concerns that the use of total number of registered voters against the use of total number of PVCs collected widened the base for the assessment of elections, Prof. Yakubu said: “It is true that only those who have collected the PVCs can vote, but our guidelines formulated on the Electoral Act only talk about the total number of registered voters in a constituency.

“It is in the guidelines, and we can amend the guidelines. But we cannot amend the guidelines in the middle of an election so that nobody will accuse me of changing the goal post during the election.

“Maybe after we dispose off, particularly these re-run elections, there will be an opportunity in full consultation with the stakeholders to revisit those guidelines.”

He disclosed that there were currently an estimated eight million uncollected PVCs in the country as he said repeated efforts to get the owners to pick them had been largely ineffectual.

Yakubu said the commission would deepen the use of technology and give legal backing to the use of the smart card reader through the amendment of the Electoral Act.

Denies consulting AGF on Kogi or any matter

Yakubu flatly denied the claim that the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, gave advice to the commission on some knotty issues it had faced, particularly on the stalemated governorship election in Kogi and the court decision on Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State.

He said: “Some people have castigated the commission for relying on the advice of the Attorney General of the Federation in the case of the Kogi election.

“We never sought clarification from the Attorney General of the Federation, we never. In this country, the Attorney General is also the Minister of Justice; so he is the chief law officer of the country, but he is also a political office holder. An independent commission like INEC should not be seen to be relying on the advice of a political office holder. I have never spoken to the Attorney General.” Yakubu said.

He also said the commission had made a recommendation to the appropriate authority on filling the vacancies in the commission. He disclosed that there were presently six vacancies in the ranks of national commissioners and 21 in the level of Resident Electoral Commissioners.

Noting with concern the spate of conflicting judicial orders and judgments the commission has had to grapple with, he said on the impasse in the PDP:

“In the last three months, we have been served 11 judgments and orders interestingly from courts of coordinate jurisdiction operating from three cities of the country on one issue and almost all of them contradictory. It started from Lagos, Port Harcourt and to Abuja.”

‘INEC Taken To Court 680 Times Over 2015 Polls’

Yakubu laments conflicting verdicts on PDP crisis

The Guardian Nigeria reports that conducting elections in the country comes with so much trouble of litigation. Political parties and their members have their share of this. But the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has more .

The INEC’s chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, underscored this when he declared that the electoral body had been taken to court 680 times by litigants over the last general elections.

Yakubu also disclosed that the leadership crisis plaguing the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was difficult to resolve.

Speaking at the weekend during a visit to The Guardian’s corporate headquarters, Rutam House, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Lagos, Yakubu said that of the 680 court cases, 600 were dismissed while 80 were upheld.

According to him, the commission has commenced rerun elections in the 80 constituencies affected. “Litigation is another major challenge we are facing in this commission. We had 680 cases of litigation out of which 600 were dismissed, with 80 appealed in the last general elections,” he stated.

The INEC chairman, who also revealed that the commission has conducted 11 out of 14 by-elections, noted that the challenges were enormous, given the number of elections the body was compelled to conduct within the shortest possible time.

For instance, he said, 137 elections were conducted in the past eight months. According to him, it was the highest number conducted by the commission aside from the general elections.

Yakubu said some of the verdicts from the courts were not easy to handle. “A bigger challenge is the leadership crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Within a period of three months alone, INEC was served with 11 judgments and orders from coordinate courts, and most of them contradictory.”

The INEC boss added that within three days last week, there were no less than four court rulings and orders on recognizing one faction or another as well as on endorsing the Port Harcourt convention or not.

Yakubu, who said INEC was banking on the stability of the judiciary to forge ahead, promised that the commission would not disobey any court order.

“My mission is to consolidate on the gains of 2015 and not to begin a new thing; we are here for consolidation, not to throw away the baby and the bath water,” he said of his task at INEC.

According to him, emphasis is on building an institution to ensure that elections do not revolve around the INEC chairman as well as to ensure that “every ballot counts, where every polling unit counts and where every ward counts.”

To him, the conduct of elections in Nigeria has become better, though INEC is yet to achieve its desired target.