2019 polls expensive due to mistrust – INEC – TheNigerialawyer

Nigeria used about two million tonnes of paper to conduct the
2019 G•eneral Elections, an official of the National Independent
Electoral Commission (INEC) has said.

“For the first time, we used close to two million tonnes of
paper for the conduct of elections, that is paper that will fill
about 60 and 70 aircrafts, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, INEC National
Commissioner in charge of South West, said on Tuesday.

Soyebi, also the Chairman, Board of the Electoral Institute,
INEC, raised the concern in Lagos at the INEC 2019 State Level Post
Election Review Retreat.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting had in
attendance INEC management staff including heads of departments,
electoral officers and their assistants and some collation officers
in the state at the 2019 elections.

Soyebi said that elections in the country had been too expensive
due to mistrust among the stakeholders.

“We must look for a way to perfect the system. The build up to
the election was very rancorous,’’ he said.

According to him, the number of woods cut to produce huge paper
used for ballots, perfecting security features to currency
standard, logistics and others, call for concern.

“Most of the things we do here are due to lack of trust. When we
print out ballot paper, we print it up to currency quality with a
lot of security features.

“We transport them as if we are transporting money with fully
armed security apparatus, keep in central bank as if they are
currency; all these are prices of mistrust among ourselves.

” This mistrust is costing the country very hugely. All these we
must address as a nation, we cannot continue this wasteful expenses
because we don’t trust ourselves.

”It is just appropriate for us to take stock after a major
exercise like this. In the history of elections in Nigeria, this is
the first time we will be confronted with huge logistics problems,”
he said.

Soyebi , who also frowned at huge number of petitions and
litigation arising from party primaries and general elections, said
that the country had a long way to go.

He said that full electronic voting would tackle most of
Nigeria’s electoral challenges.

“Time waits for nobody, we need a dynamic electoral system. The
dynamics of politics and elections keep changing in Nigeria every
time.

“We have been clamouring for what is called full electronic
voting. By now, our register is electronic; accreditation by the
smart card readers is electronic.

“Honestly, in my opinion, if we can have electronic balloting,
it will help the system, it will rest a lot of things,’’ he
added.

According to him, in 2015, the total number of registered voters
was about 70 million, and in 2019, about 84 million.

“If we project into 2023, we should expect about 100 million
registered voters.”

Soyebi congratulated INEC staff for their performances in the
2019 elections in spite of challenges.

He said that the commission had started making preparation for
2023 general elections, adding that the first ballot wiould be cast
in 2023, exactly 1, 332 days away.

“What we are here to do is to find out things that went right
and look at those things that went wrong and find ways of
correcting them.

“This review is going to translate into relationship with other
stakeholders to find out what went right and what went wrong.

Mr Sam Olumekun, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in
Lagos State, said at the event that there was the need for
stakeholders to consider addressing voter apathy before 2023
elections.

Olumekun said that the meeting was aimed at conducting a
postmortem of the 2019 elections.

He said that the objective was to review operational framework
and provide a platform for knowledge sharing.

According to him, there are reports and comments on the conduct
and outcomes of the elections, including those abusing INEC and
those supporting it.

He said: “We need to look at all these reports and, in good
conscience, comment on these reports. There have been massive
allegations of inducement of voters and vote-buying.

“In my humble opinion, this is the effect of processes in the
system, but must we not ask the question: If there is an effect,
what is the cause?

“Another important issue is voter apathy. We have close to 6.6
million registered voters in Lagos.

“In each of those elections, we recorded barely one million
people turning out to vote.

“This is a very important issue that we must look into. How can
we mitigate this development?”

The official, who said that the commission would want to avoid
pitfalls in future polls, urged the residents to change all
negative and undemocratic attitudes toward elections.

He noted that while losers in the elections raised allegations
of partisanship, corruption and collusion, the winners praised the
commission for its performance.

Olumekun said that various interpretations were given to INEC
actions and inaction before, during and after the 2019
elections.

“It (the retreat) is to identify success factors in the
elections with a view to consolidating and sustaining them and, of
course, highlights challenges in the elections in local governments
and the state,’’ he said. (NAN)