95m voters to determine Buhari’s successor in 2023 -INEC

95m voters to determine Buhari’s successor in 2023 -INEC

 

 

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that 95 million people are anticipated to decide President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor in office in the 2023 election.

 

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made the statement at an event organised by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Washington, D.C.

 

This was stated by Yakubu in a keynote speech entitled ‘Nigeria 2023: assuring credible, peaceful and inclusive elections’ that was given on Thursday in Abuja.

 

He emphasised the importance of Nigeria’s general election in 2023.

 

“The election is significant because the incumbent President is not eligible to run, this being his second and final term.

 

 

“There are 18 political parties in the race to produce the next President to be elected by 95 million voters.

 

“We had over 84 million registered voters in 2019.

 

“But with last Continuous Voter Registration(CVR), we are going to add at least 10 million Nigerians and that will take the Register of Voters to 95 million,” Yakubu said.

 

He described the election as significant because 95 million Nigerians were anticipated to vote in 176, 846 voting stations.

 

“Each time Nigeria goes to the poll, it is like the whole of West Africa voting.

 

 

“In West Africa, there are 15 countries including Nigeria. But the total number of registered voters in the 14 countries combined is 73 million.

 

“In Nigeria, it’s going to be 95 million. So, there will be 22 million more voters in Nigeria than the whole of West Africa put together,” Yakubu said.

 

The chairman stated that INEC has learned a lot from the 2015 and 2019 general elections, as well as the 103 off-cycle elections and bye-elections, held following the 2019 general election.

 

He went on to say that many innovations have been implemented to promote openness and ensure the credibility of the country’s voting process.

 

“The new Electoral Act with its many progressive provisions has provided legal backing to the innovations.

 

 

“These innovations are now provided for and protected by law, especially those leveraging on technology to improve voter registration, voter accreditation, result management and the promotion of inclusivity for marginalised persons such as women, youths and persons with disability,” he said.

 

Yakubu stated that one of the improvements was the implementation of online voter registration, which he stated was extremely useful during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

He said online registration was done with physical registration from June 2021 to June 2022, when that option was available, and that 12,298 944 people registered.

 

“This is more than the entire voter population in the Republic of Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde. We are such a huge country of great potential,” he noted.

 

According to him, INEC has finished cleaning up the data of freshly registered voters using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), which combines registered voters’ fingerprints and facial authentication.

 

Those who registered twice, as well as those who were underage or had no reason to register as required by law, were weeded out, according to him.

 

“The exercise was completed a few days ago. We have not even shared the information with Nigerians, but we have 2.7 million invalid registrants and they have been weeded out.

 

“We will continue to take steps necessary to protect the integrity of the Register of Voters because it is fundamental to the conduct of elections. There can’t be credible elections without a credible register of voters,” he said.

 

Yakubu disclosed that Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC) would be available for new registrants by November.

 

“We are looking at early to the middle of the month to make the cards available.

 

“We have already printed over 50 per cent of the cards but we haven’t delivered them to the states yet.

 

“As we clean the data, we also print the cards. Nigerians who have registered should be rest assured that they will have their cards ahead of the general election.

 

“We also need to do so in good time because the law now requires us to publish the number of cards collected per polling unit.”

 

Yakubu went on to add that INEC had also established other portals for the accreditation of observers, media organisations, the nomination of candidates by political parties, and the nomination of polling agents by political parties.

 

He added that the advances have also helped to reduce the amount of litigation resulting from political party behaviour.

 

“This is because now it’s an interaction between the party agents and the machines and anytime you logged in and out, there is a time stamp, so you can’t argue.

 

“If you argue, we’ll produce the evidence of what happened. And at 6 p.m. on a fixed date, the portal automatically shuts down. If any party has any problem, it’s not the Commission,” he said.

 

On BVAS innovation, Yakubu stated that the use of technology in Nigeria’s election system has arrived and there is no turning back.

 

He said that technology has assisted in eliminating numerous accreditations observed in prior elections, increasing public trust in election outcomes, and eliminating the usage of the Incident Form.

 

“Another innovation that we introduced is the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

 

“We are perhaps one of the few countries in the world that transmits polling unit-level results in real time on election day.

 

“Proudly, I can say we are the first to introduce it in Africa,” he said.

 

Yakubu said that IReV has increased transparency in result management and helped to eliminate the falsification of results from the polling unit level to the collation centres.

 

“We have deployed the IReV in 105 off-cycle and bye-election.

 

“We believe that the system is robust and we are taking additional measures to safeguard and fortify our web resources generally against threats of attack,” he said.

 

In terms of inclusivity, Yakubu stated that INEC has established a new Department for Gender and Inclusivity.

 

INEC has also supplied assistive gadgets for Persons with Disabilities, including as braille ballot guides and magnifying glasses for the visually challenged and those living with Albinism, within the limits of available resources, he noted.

 

Yakubu stated that the primary concern going into the 2023 general election was insecurity in various regions of the country, which was exacerbated by thuggery during elections organized by some of the political actors.

 

“Elections are conducted by human beings. We worry about the security of our officials, voters and the materials to be deployed.

 

“Without them, we cannot conduct elections. We have spoken to the security agencies; they have assured us that the situation will improve before the elections. So, fingers crossed.

 

“Those who are supposed to secure the environment have assured us that they will secure the environment for us to conduct elections. Our responsibility is to conduct elections.”

 

He noted that while INEC was worried about fake news, the commission did not promote censorship, instead focusing on increasing transparency and coordinating available options to combat fake news that has an influence on elections.

 

“We believe that the antidote to fake news is greater transparency and openness and we have been demonstrating greater transparency and openness.

 

“Social media plays a very important role in voter education and deepening democracy.

 

“But it also has the potential of skewing the narrative with the wrong information that impugns the integrity of officials or seeks to delegitimise the commission and the process before, during or after the elections.

 

“Publication of fake election results is a potential trigger for violence. What we have done is to continue to deepen our cooperation and relationship, particularly with the organised social media,” Yakubu said.