By Funke Ogunlolu
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is working towards undertaking a mock voter accreditation exercise and has concluded the configuration of the, Bimodal voters accreditation system, BVAS in Ekiti state ahead of the governorship election in three weeks time.
Addressing Journalists at its first meeting with the leadership of the civil society groups in Abuja since the new electoral act came into force on 25th February 2022, The chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu agreed that lessons learnt from the recent bye- elections have been taken into consideration for the preparation of the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun elections.
On the flip side, The civil society organizations are not satisfied with the functioning of the BVAS in recent elections and urge INEC not to give more excuses for the malfunctioning of the device.
The Pro-Democracy groups are also asking INEC not to yield to the calls of political parties to shift the dates and deadlines of the commission’s timetable for the elections in order not to jeopardize its independence
On the issue of voters apathy, The groups want Nigerians to do what is right this time by getting their voters card to vote wisely in the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections instead of allowing shady politicians to again buy themselves into power to avoid bad leadership.
INEC’s second quarterly meeting with the civil society organisations was aimed at discussing the implementation of the provisions of Sections 60, 62 and 64 of the Electoral Act 2022 regarding the management of election results.
As it stands, The Commission is expected to finalised the Regulations and Guidelines next week to guide the conduct of future elections, including the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections as well as the 2023 General Election.
Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe
