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2019: INEC charged on safety of election materials, polling units
Few days to the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has been charged to ensure prompt delivery of sensitive and non-sensitive election materials including relevant forms to polling locations and collation centres.
The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria, MMWG, which gave the charge in a statement, also stressed the need for immediate replacement of ad-hoc staff who might fail to report at their duty posts to avoid disenfranchisement of eligible voters on election days.
The statement, signed by the group’s national coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, further advised the electoral umpire to “make arrangement for maximum security at the polling units, collation centres, as well as its states and local governments’ offices to prevent the activities of political thugs who are likely to surface there in spite of several warnings from religious leaders and security agencies”.
It also called for “provision of security personnel and vehicles in polling areas with which erring voters, thugs and hoodlums could be conveyed to Police stations after being arrested for any electoral crimes”.
The group, however, commended the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu for excellent performance since his appointment and the level of preparation by the commission to ensure free, fair, credible and generally acceptable elections in the country.
“We are generally satisfied with the efforts made so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC as regards 2019 general elections. We commended its chairman Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu for a job well done”, the group stated.
The INEC, while announcing timetable for the general elections fixed February 16, 2019 for the National Assembly elections and March 2 for the Governorship and State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory, FCT Council elections.
Political actors in the country spent the better part of last year preparing for the elections and have since been on the field campaigning to the electorate in the New Year.
The INEC has since released the final list of candidates eligible to participate in the 2019 general elections, including those for the presidential, senatorial, House of Reps and state assemblies.
The information, as contained on the verified Twitter handle of the Commission, @inecnigeria, shows that the presidential candidates’ list features 144 names including their running mates.
It reveals 28 women on the list as either the candidate or the running mate while the youngest candidate is the 30-year-old Johnson Omede, being a vice-presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP.
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