The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has admitted that ongoing security challenges in the country, especially in the North-East, pose threat to the successful conduct of 2019 general elections.
Yakubu, who stated this in Lagos yesterday at the INEC/private sector forum on preparations for the 2019 general elections, noted that despite efforts the commission is putting in place towards conducting a hitch-free election, resolving insecurity in the North-East and other parts of the country was instrumental to the outcome.
The INEC boss also disclosed that as at mid-June, some 9,700,999 new voters had been registered by INEC, saying that the recently passed ‘Not Too Young’ bill by President Muhammadu Buhari had buoyed youths’ participation in registering for the 2019 general elections.
According to him, by 2019, the commission will be targeting over 80 million new voters expected to register for the general elections.
Yakubu, who spoke on the role INEC is playing towards the conduct of the elections in the country, pointed out that in spite of the security challenges in the country, no Nigerian is disenfranchised
Similarly, he said that INEC was also working to ensure mass turnout of voters during the elections in order to make it credible, adding that security agencies had critical roles to play in making sure that the set objectives of the commission come to fruition by taming the security issues.
His words: “Security remains an issue. We are determined to ensure no Nigerian is disenfranchised on account of displacement. In 2015, the commission dealt with insecurity mainly in a section of the country arising from insurgency.
“Notwithstanding the difficulty, the commission was able to provide some electoral service to qualified Nigerians at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, thereby enabling them to register and vote in the general elections.
“The nation is currently facing new security challenges that require more imaginative response by the commission. Drawing from the experience of the 2015 general elections, we tasked our Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) nationwide to identify areas of population dislocation, particularly IDP camps, so that there will be appropriate response.
“Ultimately, it is a matter for the security agencies to handle. Fortunately, the commission has a mechanism for discussing election security through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCESS) involving all the security agencies in the country.
“We will continue to work under the auspices of ICCES to ensure that the environment for elections is secure for voters, electoral officials, observers, the media and all those with legitimate reasons to be involved in elections day activities.”
Speaking further on the commission’s plans for the elections, the INEC boss explained that currently, about 119,973 polling units had been created, 8,809 Wards (registration areas), 68 political parties registered, being the largest number in Nigeria’s electoral history.
He added that this figure was set to rise as the commission processes more applications (138 as at last week) from associations seeking registration as political parties.
He stated further that: “Since April 2017, when the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise started, some 9,700,999 new voters have been registered as at June 14, 2018. If we add this to the current register of 69,720,350 voters, we will have a register of over 80 million voters in 2019. Since the CVR is ongoing, clearly the number will rise above 80 million.”
Yakubu revealed that elections would be held in 1,558 constituencies in 2019, made up of one Presidential Constituency, 109 Senatorial Districts, 360 Federal Constituencies (House of Representatives), 991 State Constituencies (Houses of Assembly) and 68 Area Councils in the FCT (6 Chairmen and 62 Councillors).
“It should be noted that the FCT is the only part of the country where INEC is constitutionally empowered to conduct local government elections. The end of tenure of the council chairmen and councillors coincides with the 2019 general elections,” he stated
While fielding questions from the participants, the INEC boss noted that the commission was currently working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute political parties that spent above their budget provisions in the last general elections to set the record straight that political party needs to spend within their budget limit.