Conducts supplementary elections in 7 senatorial districts, 24 federal constituencies in 14 states
Ime Akpan
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, yesterday stated that the commission would not issues the certificate of return to any candidate who obtains electoral victory by coercing its staff in the governorship, state legislative assembly and FCT area council elections holding tomorrow, March 9.
He also threatened to record zero votes and cancel the results of polling units where its personnel deliberately failed to deploy the smart card readers.
Speaking during the meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security held at INEC headquarters in Abuja, Yakubu recalled how some of the commission’s staff were harassed and taken hostage and electoral materials including smart card readers, ballot boxes and voter registers to violent acts during the February 23 presidential and national assembly elections.
“The commission is concerned that many of our materials, including ballot boxes, voting cubicles, voter registers and Smart Card Readers were lost to acts of hooliganism and thuggery in the elections held two weeks ago. Most worrisome is the attack on electoral officials.
“Some of our staff were abducted and taken hostage in an attempt to disrupt elections or influence the outcome. In fact, some of the supplementary elections were caused by such acts of thuggery.
“I am confident that working together with the security agencies, we will consolidate the largely peaceful conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections while also taking decisive steps to deal with the minority of violators’ intent on disrupting the conduct of peaceful elections.
“However, the commission will not tolerate the act of holding our officials hostage and forcing them to declare winners under duress. Where such occurs, the commission will not reward bad behaviour by issuing them Certificates of Return.
“We have once again reconfigured the Smart Card Readers for the elections on Saturday. The use of the card readers is mandatory and there will be no exemption to their deployment for accreditation of voters.
“Under our regulations and guidelines, there are clear penalties for the deliberate failure to deploy them on the part of our members of staff. Where such happens with the connivance of communities, the result of election in the polling unit(s) will be cancelled and zero votes will be recorded,” he said.
He said gubernatorial election would be conducted in 29 states; state assembly poll will elect 991 members of houses of assembly in all the states of the federation, six chairmen as well as 62 councillors for the area councils in the Federal Capital Territory.
In addition to elections into 1,082 constituencies nationwide, Yakubu said the commission would conduct supplementary elections in 14 states of the federation covering seven senatorial districts and 24 federal constituencies.
The supplementary elections, he said, were necessitated by electoral fraud, violence and hooliganism perpetrated by political thugs and politicians during the February 23 elections.
Seven states -Anambra, Bayelsa, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, Edo and Kogi -whose governors have not yet served out their terms, will not take part in the exercise.
However, elections into the various seats in state Houses of Assembly will hold in the 36 states of the federation.
In all, 1,158 governorship candidates will contest the governorship positions in the 29 states, while 14, 643 candidates will contest 991 posts in the various state Houses of Assembly.
Yakubu also announced that certificates of return for governors-elect and their deputies, members of state houses of assembly-elect and chairmen- and councilors-elect for the FCT “shall be presented in each state of the federation by the supervising national commissioners and the resident electoral commissioners on a date to be announced next week.
For senatorial districts and federal constituencies in which winners have already emerged, Yakubu said the commission would issue certificates of return to the elected representatives next week.
With Punch report
