INEC to announce results in 48 hours

Posted by admin INEC Politics, Latest Politics Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Results of the coming elections will be announced in 48 hours, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair Prof. Attahiru Jega said yesterday.

He also said that the distribution of ballot papers, which are being kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria, would be tracked to avoid being hijacked by politicians and thugs.

Jega, who spoke at a consultative meeting with editors and news managers in Abuja, said INEC was ready for the elections.

He said: “We are pleased with the state of preparedness. We have recruited and trained about 400,000, an average of three polling unit staff plus a number of supervisory officials. In terms of logistics, we have tried to improve.

“We are doing our best to see that within 48 hours, the results are announced. We are targeting 48hours.But you should remember that Nigeria is a very vast country, but we expect the result to be collated and announced in 48hours.

“We will not compromise the process of vetting and verification of results, but we should be able to have all the results in within 48 hours.”

INEC staff will not be part of the collation of results, “in view of past experiences by the commission”.

Jega added: “We have done our best to insulate INEC staff from the result collation process; we have brought new measures of insulating our staff from this.

“We have also deployed, on experimental basis, Electronic Collation System, which we will be able to deploy in hot spot areas.

“We have also Electronic Surveillance Technology to help us monitor activities in strategic areas. It is not nationwide, but I think with time, we will keep on scaling up. The good thing is that some of these measures we have put in place are evident now and our courts are admitting electronic evidence.”

Jega pleaded with the media to exercise caution on announcement of results.

He added: “Easily the most sensitive role of the media in its coverage of the electoral processes is how the results of elections are reported. This factor, incidentally, isn’t peculiar to Nigeria .

“Literally speaking, elections might be credibly conducted, and yet non-discretionary reportage of the results would make them largely unacceptable to the public. Because the media is a highly competitive industry, the tendency has been that many organisations rush to the streets with inconclusive results, which they parade as provisional declarations of the outcomes – and that, ahead of formal pronouncements by designated Retuning Officers who are mandated by law to make such declarations.

“The problem in that industry culture, however, is that such premature declarations of outcomes often prejudice the populace and obstruct the acceptability of official results, especially if, for practically attestable reasons, they are at variance with those premature or inconclusive declarations. I plead with the media, therefore, to understand this danger and exercise utmost caution in the task ahead.”

On ballot papers, the INEC chairman said: “In fact, virtually all the ballot papers for the series of elections have been delivered. These ballot papers are in the Central Bank of Nigeria ’s vaults but they still have to be moved.

“While moving the ballot papers, the Federal Road Safety Corps’ vehicles that are tracked will be in the convoy to know or detect if they are diverted. We have inspected the FRSC’s facilities and they are very, very embracing. It is satellite tracking.

“Our ballot boxes have unique numbers, corresponding to the polling units. So, if the ballot boxes are hijacked, it is very easy for us to detect. Even if you take ballot papers meant for a polling unit to another, we will detect it.”

The INEC chairman explained that although troops will be deployed to curtail violence, they have no business being at the polling units.

He allayed fears that deployment of troops could account for low turn out of voters.

He said: “All the troops will be on the alert. They may be in their barracks or any strategic place, in case there is infringement. There will be no soldiers in any polling unit or near polling unit. But, if there is any hot spot, they will be on patrol, but not physically in any polling unit. That is my understanding of deployment of troops.”

Pressed to name high-profile Nigerians caught for double and multiple registration, Jega added that they were not governors or ministers or top government officials as being assumed.

He said: “We have discovered 870,000 cases of double registration. We have prosecuted those involved in double registration in Kano , Zamfara, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Kebbi, Enugu and in many other states.

“But, there are challenges. We don’t have the capacity to prosecute these cases. We got an offer of assistance from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to prosecute these cases. We are trying to arraign more of these suspects in court between now and Friday.

“On high-profile cases of multiple registrants, we have evidence that a chairman of a local government and some party officials were involved. It was not a governor, a minister or a commissioner. I assure you that we will prosecute them.”

Asked whether he is not afraid of his life being endangered with the reforms in place for the polls, Jega said: “Who does not? But, what has to be done has to be done. We hope that when we breathe our last, whatever we cannot accomplish, others will do it. By my religion, I believe in predestination.

“When I die, how I die is already predetermined. I am not worried about my life. If I am worried, I will not take this job.”

On being under pressure to do what is wrong, Jega insisted that there was nothing like that.

He said: “There were times I made statements at the National Assembly, but I was misquoted. I never said I was under pressure. I have not seen pressure yet. I have the capacity to resist pressure.

“I am not under pressure by anybody. Nobody has come to me and categorically suggested to me that I should do something wrong. They have not come to me because they know I will not do it.

“We will not defend the indefensible, whether it is by poll observers or by our own officials, we will do our best to do things normally. We are doing everything possible to ensure that we get it right.”

Responding to a question on why Northerners are in charge of INEC as chairman, Secretary and Director of Logistics for the elections, Jega said the presence of officials at the highest level of the electoral commission would not affect the outcome of the polls.

He said: “Frankly speaking, it (the Northern dominance) is neither here nor there. I did not appoint INEC Secretary and the Director of Logistics; they were there before I came on board. And those who appointed me knew that they were there before me. I have no cause for now to remove them.

“When we do recruitment after the elections, we will take cognizance of the Federal Character principle. And come to think of it, what is the role of Administrative Secretary in the conduct of elections? And what is the role of Director of Logistics in the elections when he is under a National Commissioner? We have several committees chaired by National Commissioners. I am aware that in our country that people will make issue out of this.

-The Nationwp_posts