INEC To Release List Of Electoral Law Breakers

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BY LAWRENCE ETIM.

In an interactive session with  newsmen  in Lagos last Monday the Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday, Prof. Attahiru Jega, made this known that his commission had begun compiling names of politicians breaching electoral laws in the country. And that  information on such politicians was  being passed on to security agencies for necessary action.

The commission’s Chairman, again warned politicians  violating electioneering rules  ahead of 2015 polls to beware. He noted that   all  the registered political parties  were also  guilty. The INEC chief  however maintained that  parties  were free to hold their  rallies as long as they did  not campaign for votes for the 2015 elections.

Although he was confident  that  the 2015 polls would  surpass  the previous ones,  he expressed  worry  over the  behaviour  of some stakeholders, especially politicians. He urged such politicians to change their attitude and respect the rules of the game. Jega said that the commission   had substantially “placed square pegs in square holes’’ to ensure improvement in future elections. “We have told our members of staff that anyone who does anything wrong will have himself or herself to blame,’’ the nation’s chief electoral officer stated.

INEC has intensified training for its permanent and ad hoc staff to make them more proficient and   improved the integrity of the biometric register. He recalled. “We have cleaned the register. It now compares favourably with any electronic register anywhere in the world,’’  the commission’s boss  added. INEC has also  adopted  some security devices that can check multiple registrations, Jega said, adding that ballot papers and result sheets would  be numbered to make it possible for its  officials  to account for them.

He said  that INEC lacked the capacity to prosecute  those behind the over one million cases of multiple registrations in its records. This, according to Jega, was “why we recommended the setting up of electoral offences tribunals in line with Justice (Muhammadu) Uwais’ recommendations.’’ He eventually explained  that the permanent voter cards  being  introduced by INEC  were chip-based and contained details of individuals which could be screened by card readers at polling units.

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