Former INEC commissioner lists 10 defining factors for 2023 elections

Former INEC commissioner lists 10 defining factors for 2023 elections

By Emmanuel Oloniruha

A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Ecectoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu, has identifies ten defining factors in the conduct of the 2023 general election.

Ibeanu listed the factors while delivering keynote address at a conference on 2023 Election with the theme “Political Parties, 2023 Elections and the Future of Democracy in Nigeria,’’ in Abuja.

The conference was organised by Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS-PPLPDC), Kuru, Plateau State.

Ibeanu said five of those factors made very positive contributions to the general election, while the other five posed major challenge to the high-quality elections that INEC promised Nigerians and seemed poised to deliver.

The positive factors according to him were: the new legal framework, specifically the Electoral Act 2022, as well as early planning for the election by INEC.

Others were new technologies particularly, the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED), Bimodal Voter Accreditation System ( BVAS), INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, online candidate management.

He listed  voter enthusiasm, especially the massive interest by young voters; and expansion of voter access to polling units and other positive factors that defined the elections.

The negative factors according to Ibeanu  include: Insecurity and violence, especially attacks on INEC’s facilities and threats to peaceful elections.

“Instrumentalisation of ethnicity and religion for electoral purposes by politicians.

“Culture of electoral impunity and voter inducement and vote buying, particularly with money;  Economic challenges prior to the election.’’

He added that the large and mostly late turnover of critical personnel of INEC, especially National and Resident Electoral Commissioners and the quality of their replacements as parts of the negative factors.

“In these negative factors, what the government and politicians have done to INEC is akin to the proverbial sending a man home with a bag of salt and conjuring a heavy rain after him,’’ Ibeanu said.

On the outcome of the general election, Ibeanu said he was reluctant to delve into them since a lot about them were already sub judice.

He, however, said there were two unhelpful and disobliging perspectives that are making the rounds.

“The first are those who believe that the elections are flawed because their preferred candidates did not win.

“The second and even more disingenuous are those who argue that those who are aggrieved feel so only because their preferred candidates lost.’’

Ibeanu said there was a tendency to portray those challenging the outcomes in court as bad people or people who hate Nigeria.

“It is important to reiterate that the legal process is a legitimate part of our electoral system. It demands that a fair adjudicatory process examines and determines the merits of these grievances.

“ In fact, as inconvenient as these election petitions may appear to some people, my experience is that they have been a fertile soil for electoral reforms and improvements.”