Independent National Electoral Commission says it has the capacity to conduct elections into the 774 local government area councils across the country.
INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, gave this assurance when he appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Electoral Matters, to brief lawmakers on the Commission’s
preparations for the upcoming Edo and Ondo State governorship elections and its relationship with the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) in relation to various court judgements.
Since the Supreme Judgement of July 11, 2024, granting financial autonomy to local government area councils in the country, there have been divergent views on whether SIECs should be scrapped to allow INEC to conduct local government elections in order to extricate LGAs from the control of state governors.
But the INEC chairman told the lawmakers that the Commission can conduct elections at the third tier of government in the 36 states if the National Assembly amend the 1999 Constitution, transferring the responsibility to it to conduct the exercise.
“The same Constitution that creates INEC also creates the State Electoral Commissions. So it is up to the National Assembly to amend the law to transfer that responsibility to the INEC.
“If the responsibility for the conduct of local government election is transferred to INEC, can INEC cope? The answer is yes! INEC can cope. What are we? By definition, INEC is the Independent National Electoral Commission but right now we do national elections, we can do state elections, we do local government elections.
“A national electoral commission may be expected to handle only the Presidential and National Assembly elections but we also do governorship election, we do State Assembly elections and do the Area Council Elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the only part of the country where INEC conducts local government elections.
“Broadly speaking, if you ask us, can we handle local government elections, yes we can handle the local government elections. When is it going to happen? When you amend the law and empower the commission to do so,” the INEC chairman told the lawmakers.
Yakubu said that the commission has demonstrated by its track record that it can conduct local government elections as can be inferred from FCT Area Council polls, which INEC undertakes periodically.
He added, “Check the case of FCT and I will like to say one or two things about the FCT local government elections. There are six Area Councils in the FCT. Like I said, there are six chairmen in the FCT, there are 62 wards in the FCT.
“Each Ward constitutes Constituency for the election of Councilors and this is one part of the country that INEC has conducted local government elections and it has resulted in the following:
“Number one, it is perhaps only part of the country where local government elections are held regularly as at when due, elections are held in the FCT.
“Number two, there has never been a Caretaker Committee for any Area Council in the FCT, INEC has been conducting the election regularly.
“Number three, there is stability of tenure, it used to be three years but in 2022, the National Assembly amended Electoral Act to provide for a four-year tenure for Area Councils in the FCT.
“Number four, no single political party has ever won elections in all the constituencies in the FCT. In fact, what is interesting now is that out of the six chairmen of the FCT; APC has three Area Councils, PDP has three Area Councils. If you take the Councillorship elections, it’s very interesting indeed; 62 Councilors in the FCT, APC has 19, PDP won in 43 constituencies,” he said.
The INEC boss stressed that it was on that basis that many Nigerians say that if the commission is saddled with the responsibility of conducting local government elections, the same thing will be replicated and it will be good for Nigeria’s democracy.
Yakubu noted that if INEC is saddled with the duty of conducting local government polls, there were issues that needed to be addressed such as funding, hence 10,000 additional constituencies will be transferred to the commission, amounting to over 11,000 where it will be conducting elections.
“In any case, if you transfer local government elections to INEC, what it means is that you are going to transfer almost 10,000 Constituencies to INEC. We have 8,809 wards, each ward is a councillorship constituency. We have 774 local government areas and each local government has a chairman.
“So if you add this to the existing 1,591 constituencies where INEC conducts elections, it is well over 11,000 constituencies but the elections may not be held all in one day.
“So, in terms of capacity to do it, INEC can do it we have been doing it in the Federal Capital Territory, we have no issues. But if the decision of the National Assembly is to amend the Constitution to saddle INEC with that responsibility, then we need an engagement with the National Assembly.
“There are certain consequential amendments that have to be done for us to handle those additional responsibilities. For instance, who is going to fund the 10,000 new Constituencies that INEC will be saddled with? There is need for a discussion to determine who is going to fund it. Or will the Federal Government continue to fund for the states?
“You have to do something about the bye-elections if INEC is saddled with additional 10,000 Constituencies, we will probably be doing bye-elections every week,” he said.
On the preparation for the forthcoming Edo and Ondo governorship elections, the INEC chairman said the commission has implemented the activities within the timelines as provided for by the law (Electoral Act, 2022), adding that it will soon start printing the voter register for the two states.
He also expressed concerns over the security and other challenges being faced ahead of the two-off cycle elections, lamenting use of power of incumbency by governors to the detriment of other opposition parties and their candidates.
“We outlined 13 activities leading to the election as required by law from publication of notice for elections to conduct of election. So far, we have implemented eight activities. We are on the ninth activity and not one activity has been shifted by one day.
“We have implemented those activities in Edo and Ondo seamlessly. The ninth activity is the submission of names of polling agents by political parties in Edo by the end of this month, 30th July but for Ondo, it would be 30th of September.
“These off-cycle elections are very difficult and very challenging for us. For the simple reason that you have one state conducting governorship elections and all the political parties would form their campaign councils and would deploy all the governors, all the honourable members in support of their colleagues. It becomes very challenging for us.
“The power of incumbency is used to the advantage or disadvantage of parties and candidates and this is a clear violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act that prohibits the use of the power of incumbency to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate whether it is outdoor advertisement or campaign in the state media or the use of state facilities like stadia and public spaces,” he added.
