THE
Chairman Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof
Attahiru Jega, has insisted that the 2015 general election will go on as
planned.
Jega noted that the commission was
working with an election timetable which was issued a year ago and was
fully determined to implement thE timetable to the fullest.
He therefore noted that the commission at no time contemplated postponement of the general election.
Meanwhile, Jega has assured Nigerians
that the commission will ensure that all registered voters get their
Permanent Voter Cards before the February election.
Jega also maintained that there was no
going back on the use of PVC in the elections, stressing that return to
the use of the Temporary Voter Cards as being called for in some
quarters will set the country and the commission backward.
He also announced that INEC has so far
produced 50 million PVCs which, according to him, have been made
available for collection out of the 68.8 million registered voters, with
30 million already collected.
Jega noted that the commission was aware
of the ongoing anxiety in the country over the PVCs. He however assured
the gathering that INEC would do everything possible to ensure that all
the cards are distributed.
He also hinted that in the worst case
scenario, the commission will distribute the cards until the eve of the
presidential election.
Prof. Jega also listed Plateau, Katsina,
Kano, FCT, Edo, Cross River, and Bayelsa as states with high number of
complaints related to PVC distribution.
The INEC chairman spoke at a programme
for mitigation of violence in election (MOVE) project launch organised
by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). Also in
attendance was the President of the Court of Appeal, Justoce Zainab
Bulkachuwa, and European Union (EU) first Secretary, Alan Munday.
He said: “A major source of electoral
fraud in this country, is the manner in which politicians and\or their
supporters either buy off voter cards or steal voter cards, which they
give to other people rather than the true owners to go and vote for them
on election day.
“ So we examined this when we were processing the voter cards and the law requires INEC to produce permanent voter cards.
“Before 2011, we produced temporary
voter cards because there was no enough time to produce PVC for
everybody. Because of the authentication that would be carried out on
the day of the elections, that Is why we don’t want to use TVCs because
they cannot be read by card readers.
“So, we have done everything possible to
test the integrity of both the card readers and the card, and we fill
so confident that using them will put additional value to the integrity
of the election process.
“So the key challenge is how can we
ensure that on the election day nobody was disenfranchised. That any
person who had registered would have his voter cards produced and made
available to him or her so that they can participate in the election.
“We know that there is a lot of anxiety
in the country now because the rate of collection of the cards is slow
and because there are some of the cards we have not produced yet. But we
are doing everything possible to ensure that before the end of this
month, all the cards are produced and made available for people to
collect them.
“The collection has also been a problem.
There are millions of cards available for people to collect. We have
given people up to 31st January to collect their cards. But if push
comes to shove, we can distribute up till the eve of the election.“
Jega would not comment on the reported
call by the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki that the
commission should postpone the election, saying “I don’t want to comment
on this. Like everybody, we read it in the papers. I myself, many
things have been attributed to me which I know I didn’t say. So until I
can confirm and get clarification, it will be premature for me at this
public event to start saying anything.
“In any case, anything I communicate is
the commissions position and the commission has not discussed this
matter and taken a position on it. So I want to be more patient on this.
I cannot comment on this for now.”
Jega also castigated the advert placed
in some national newspapers by Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State,
urging the media to act responsibly.
He stressed that the media should be
able to reject some advertorials when the message is capable of inciting
or causing provocation among the people.
He said: “There is a consensus on
non-violence. Newspapers should exercise self censorship; not to take
money and just put anything that is given to them. They have to be
careful and ask, ‘If we put this message, what would be the negative
implication of it in terms of Provokating people or inciting violence?’
“There are so many things that the media
can do. Press freedom is absolutely necessary and there is nothing
anybody can do to infringe on that right.
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