The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is forging ahead with its introduction of 30,027 new polling units because it is convinced they will enhance smooth elections next year.
The agency has started a pilot test, which it described as an assessment scheme.
Besides, INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega said yesterday that insecurity and unruly attitude of politicians constitute the major challenge to peaceful elections.
Jega spoke at a national stakeholders’ forum on election organised by the civil society situation room on achieving the implementation of credible general elections. It was held in Abuja.
Jega said his greatest fear for the 2015 elections was making politicians to play by the rules.
“The attitude of the political class is the greatest challenge. They want to intimidate, harass and induce.
“Security is also a challenge, especially in the three states in the Northeast. We can not put our men and resources at risk. But we are having an inter-agencies security meetings going on frequently,” Jega said.
He said investigation conducted by the commission showed that Youth Corps members who were compromised were threatened by politicians to either collect gratification or be killed.
He urged politicians to play by the rules of the game during the 2015 elections.
Jega said the commission had blocked many of the loopholes exploited in the past by politicians to rig elections.
“I am confident that 2015 will be better operationally and logistically,” Jega said. He added that a better voters register had been produced and that all ballot boxes were being numbered serially. This, he said was not so when he was appointed in 2010.
He spoke of other efforts being made by INEC under his leadership.
“In 2010 when I was inaugurated as chairman INEC, we discovered that there was abandonment of doing the basic things that allow election to be credible, such as keeping voter register. A good register is fundamental to the success of an election,” he said.
The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese Rev. Mathew Hassan Kukah, cautioned President Goodluck Jonathan and governors against imposing candidates on the people.
He said such practice would heat up the polity and frustrate elections’ results.
Rev. Kukah said INEC could only conduct credible election in 2015 if Nigerians want credible elections.
He said the country’s inability to develop a culture of succession has resulted in what he described as “a system of government by the corrosive poison of anointing,” which he said promoted “rent seeking”.
Rev. Kukah observed that presidents and governors are all determined to install their favourite wives (as in Zimbabwe), their sons (as in Museveni) or their godsons and daughters as we see in the land.
“By forcing candidates, sitting presidents or governors simply heat up the system and frustrate outcomes in elections by contriving outcomes.”
He also noted that a situation where people hurriedly resign their appointments to go and seek elective posts implies that there would be no level playing ground for all candidates.
“What chances do new comers have to win elections if they are competing with those who have had access to state resources by virtue of the positions they held before they left office?
Rev. Kuhay explained that since political office, being the domain of patronage and privilege, the country was caught in the predicament of the men and women in the fortified city: those inside can not get out and those outside can’t enter.
“It is this convoluted logic that produces the violence and the humiliating culture of accumulation and theft in the land,” he added
Also yesterday, INEC said it had not received any resolution from either the Senate or the House of Representatives to stop the creation of new polling units.
Since 1996 and in spite of increase in its population, Nigeria conducted its elections in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 based on 120,000 polling units and 8,809 wards (registration areas).
INEC proposed the creation of additional polling units for what Jega described as “right-sizing of our polling units based on the number of registered voters.”
The proposal was, however, rejected by some sections of the country, including some leaders of the Southern Peoples Assembly.
But INEC is going ahead with the new polling units.
A top source said: “The commission has not taken any contrary decision on the new polling units but it is still at the level of groundwork.
“Our Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) are on the field. Once the commission takes a decision, they have to implement it.
“We are pushing ahead because as I am talking to you, we have not received any resolution of the Senate or the House of Representatives stopping the exercise.
“We chose to move on because all along the commission has decided to put the argument for the legitimacy of the new polling units in public domain.
“And there has been no superior argument to fault the rationale behind the creation of the new 30,027 units. Instead, what we have witnessed were comedian and sentimental comments.
“Even at that, since the conduct of elections is crucial in our national life, we have not waived off some of these primordial and ethnic sentiments.”
“We said let us have a thorough assessment. If we go out to carry out the exercise, we will be able to determine whether we can do it efficiently or not.
“If we get report on what is on ground, we will be able to ascertain if we can pull through because 2015 is close.
“But we have not got to the stage of whether to pull through or suspend the creation of the polling units.”
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, declined comments.
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