INEC: Ekiti, Osun Guber Polls Have Prepared Us Better for 2023

•Releases details of voter registration, puts total at 12,298,944

Chuks Okocha

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, said its experiences at the last governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states had prepared it better for the 2023 general election. Chairman of Board of Electoral Institute (TEI), INEC, Professor Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, stated this during the opening of the Post Election Training Audit (PETA).

The commission put the voter registration at 12,298,944.

INEC said appraisal of the two off-season elections was necessary to understand the challenges in the states, stressing that without such evaluation it would be difficult to prepare adequately for the 2023 general election.

Zuru said the appraisal was to enable the commission understand the challenges encountered, so as to correct them and avoid a repeat of such situations in the preparation for next year’s general election.

He listed the purpose of the post-election audit to include, to, “Review and interrogate the just concluded training exercises in the build-up to the Ekiti and Osun elections so as to track progresses made in the implementation of the approved cascade training plans.

“Examine the synergy between the Training and Research and Documentation Departments of TEI, on the one hand, and other collaborating departments of the commission, security agencies and the National Youth Service Corps on other in field operations before, during and after the election day;

“Keep the Electoral Institute and, by extension, the commission apace with the build up to a sustainable, effective and efficient electoral service delivery towards the 2023 general election; inculcate the concept of quality assurance of trainings in line with international best practices; and come up with enduring general and actionable recommendations on how to improve the quality of electoral trainings in the commission.”

Zuru further said, “The electorate’s perception of the fairness, freeness, credibility and inclusivity of an election is largely determined by the performance of the poll workers.

“That is, the ad hoc staff in our nomenclature. Poll workers play a critical role in elections, as they serve as a bridge between voters, who cast their votes, the election management body, and, indeed, the officials to be elected for a country; positive disposition of poll workers encourages voter turnout while negative disposition evokes apathy.”

In his remarks, Director General of the Electoral Institute, Dr. Sa’ad Umar Idris, said the essence of the appraisal of the Osun and Ekiti governorship elections was to undertake an evaluation and audit of all electoral training activities that took place in the two states.

Idris said the review would consider reports from both internal and external observation and monitoring groups from the field during the governorship elections that showed there were recorded improvements in the overall performance of poll officials as a result of quality training delivery.

According to the INEC update, fresh registrants as at August 1, 2022, stood at 10,487,972, while completed registration was at 12,298,944.

Giving further details of the update, INEC said online registration was 3,444,378, while physical was 8,854,566

In the same manner, the male registrants were 6,074,078, while the female voters, as at August 1, were 6,224,866. The Persons living with Disability (PWD) was 87,083, while the youths were 8,784,677

The leading state was Lagos, with 585,629, followed by Kano, with 569,103. The least were Ekiti State, with 124,844, and Yobe State, with 152,414.

However, barely 24 hours after the suspension of voter registration, INEC disclaimed a site that claimed to be continuing with the exercise, insisting the exercise ended on July 31.

A statement by INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Information and Chairman, Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said, “The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been drawn to an online site urging Nigerians to enrol for ‘VOTER CARD (PVC)’ registration claiming that the federal government has approved individual VOTER CARD (PVC) registration online to avoid unnecessary crowd in the ‘NIMC’ CENTERS.”

According to Okoye, “The commission states unequivocally that the site is not linked to the commission and the link/portal is spurious and from a dubious source.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission is the only body constitutionally and legally mandated to conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote in any election in Nigeria and to update and revise the register when the need arises.

“The commission is solely responsible for organising, undertaking, and supervising national elections in the country and does not share this responsibility with anybody or organisation.”

INEC further advised members of the public not to succumb to the antics of online scammers and to avoid such fake sites. It said INEC had concluded the Continuous Voter Registration exercise nationwide and did not need to open an additional site or portal for the purposes of registration of voters.