Ekiti and Osun Governorship Elections Have Better Prepared Us for 2023 says INEC

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

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

According to the commission, there are 12,298,944 registered voters.

INEC stated that evaluating the two off-season elections was necessary to understand the challenges in the states, emphasizing that without such evaluation, adequately preparing for the 2023 general election would be difficult.

Zuru stated that the appraisal was conducted to help the commission understand the challenges that were encountered in order to correct them and avoid similar situations in the run-up to next year’s general election.

The purpose of the post-election audit, according to him, is to “review and interrogate the recently concluded training exercises in the run-up to the Ekiti and Osun elections in order to track progress in the implementation of the approved cascade training plans.”

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

“Maintain the Electoral Institute and, by extension, the commission on track to deliver sustainable, effective, and efficient electoral services in advance of the 2023 general election; instill the concept of training quality assurance in accordance with international best practices; and develop long-term general and actionable recommendations on how to improve the quality of electoral trainings in the commission.”

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

“That is, in our nomenclature, the ad hoc staff.” Poll workers play an important role in elections because they act as a link between voters who cast ballots, the election management body, and the officials to be elected for a country; positive poll worker disposition encourages voter turnout, while negative poll worker disposition evokes apathy.”

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

Idris stated that the review would take into account reports from both internal and external observation and monitoring groups from the field during the governorship elections that showed improvements in the overall performance of poll officials as a result of quality training delivery.

According to the INEC update, there were 10,487,972 new registrants as of August 1, 2022, with 12,298,944 completed registrations.

INEC provided additional information about the update, stating that online registration totaled 3,444,378 and physical registration totaled 8,854,566.

Similarly, male registrants totaled 6,074,078, while female voters totaled 6,224,866 as of August 1. Persons with Disabilities (PWD) numbered 87,083, while youths numbered 8,784,677.

Lagos had the most residents (585,629), followed by Kano (569,103). Ekiti State had the fewest, with 124,844, and Yobe State had the most, with 152,414.

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

“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 crowding in the ‘NIMC’ CENTERS,” said Festus Okoye, INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Information and Chairman, Voter Education.

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

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

“The commission is solely responsible for organizing, conducting, and supervising national elections in the country, and it shares this responsibility with no other person or organization.”

INEC also advised the public not to fall victim to the antics of online scammers and to avoid such fake websites. It stated that INEC had completed the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration exercise and that there was no need to open a new site or portal for voter registration.