Ahead Of Elections 2019: Experts Advise FG, INEC

Following the success of the 2015 elections, experts have advised the Federal Government on the next line of action in the build up to the 2019 elections.

In a statement issued on Thursday after a two-day stakeholders’ review meeting on media and the 2015 elections, experts called on the FG to sustain the improvements of the 2015 elections by retaining the appointment of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s core staff.

According to the experts, the retention of key INEC technical staff would serve to provide “institutional memory”, Punch reports.

The meeting organised by Democratic Governance for Development project of the United Nations Development Programme and the European Union also witnessed a request from the experts.

They demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari ensure that the next leader to replace the outgoing INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega is proven capable and has the integrity to take on the task ahead.

The experts also urged the electoral commission to begin preparations for the 2019 polls by frequently updating the voter register, production and distribution of Permanent Voter Cards to avoid last minute rush.

“Electoral reform efforts should include the strengthening of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s operational control over security during elections, including the use of surveillance cameras in collation centres. INEC should digitalise the collation of election results and improve on its logistics management and contingency planning ahead of future elections. INEC should decentralise and improve all its information and communication structures for better outreach”, the statement reads.

However, speaking after the demands of experts, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Akin Orebiyi, stated that the INEC would improve on its electoral process ahead of the 2019 polls, especially in the areas of production and distribution of the PVCs.

“We promised to do a number of things but we couldn’t deliver all, for instance, Only 60% of the PVCs were distributed in the whole of Ogun State. While 5.6 million eligible voters were able to redeem their PVCs in Lagos out of about 5.8 million who registered.

This means that around 200,000 eligible voters were disenfranchised”, Orebiyi said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega is expected to leave office come June 30, 2015.