INEC to lobby lawmakers over Smart Card Reader – TheNigerialawyer

*Agency: it must have legal status – Yakubu laments
politicians attitude

THE Smart Card Reader (SCR) is a major route to an improved
electoral system, the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), said on Tuesday.

But the agency insisted that the SCR must be backed by law.

To achieve this among other reforms necessary to allow it
conduct elections in a better atmosphere, INEC will spearhead a
massive reform of the electoral law, its Chairman Prof. Mahmood
Yakubu said.

Yakubu spoke against the backdrop of the lamentation by INEC’s
National Commissioner (Voter Education), Mr. Festus Okoye, that
politicians are circumventing the Smart Card Reader.

Okoye said the SCR has lost “its vibrancy” because politicians
have found a way around it.

But Prof. Yakubu said INEC would engage the National Assembly to
give SCR the legal backing.

Yakubu, who spoke at a meeting with Resident Electoral
Commissioners (RECs), said: “The judgment of the Supreme Court on
the primacy of the voter register as the determinant of over-voting
in law merely draws attention to the lacuna in the electoral legal
framework.”

Yakubu said the lacuna needed to be addressed “through immediate
and appropriate amendment to the Electoral Act.”

He added: “The status of the SCR must be provided for and
protected by law. Similarly, accreditation data from the SCR should
be used to determine over-voting and the margin of lead
principle.

”The commission will present a proposal to the National Assembly
on this matter as well as other areas in which further deployment
of technology will deepen the integrity of our electoral
process.

“Let me reiterate that the SCR has come to stay. It cannot be
jettisoned or abandoned.

”The commission will seek ways by which its utility in elections
can be enhanced for the triple objectives of verification of the
genuineness of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), confirmation of
ownership and fingerprint authentication of voters.

The INEC chairman also said 807 post-election cases arising from
the 2019 general elections were filed at the tribunals. About 582
of them were dismissed, 183 withdrawn by the petitioners, 30
scheduled for re-run and 12 for issuance of certificates of
return.

Yakubu said the commission was required to conduct re-run in 30
constituencies across 12 states of the federation.

He said: “In a majority of cases, elections are to be re-run in
just a few polling units, some of them in only one polling unit in
the entire constituency. Elections were held in 1,558
constituencies nationwide in the 2019 general elections.

“The 30 constituencies into which re-run elections will be
conducted represent 1.92 percent of the total number of
constituencies. The commission believes that we are making progress
in this respect.

Yakubu frowned at the allegation by the People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) that the commission connived with ruling All
Progressives Congress and the military to rig elections in some
states.

He said it was inconceivable that INEC would want to sabotage
itself.

Yakubu lamented that elections were threatened by impunity,
which can only be curtailed by the enforcement of sanctions.

The INEC boss said that the only way to safeguard the sanctity
of the electoral process was to ensure that offenders, no matter
how highly placed, were severely punished when caught .

He, however, assured that INEC would continue to work with the
National Assembly and other stakeholders to see to the realization
of the Uwais Committee on Electoral Reforms (2008) on the
establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission and
Tribunal.

He stressed: “It is inconceivable that INEC will make elaborate
arrangement for the deployment of personnel and materials and then
turn around to undermine ourselves in the field on election day.
Impunity has become the bane of our elections.

“The best antidote to impunity is the enforcement of sanctions
under our laws without fear and favour. Where offenders are not
punished, bad behaviour is encouraged.

”The commission is deeply concerned that elections in Nigeria,
especially for executive positions, are increasingly characterised
by brazen acts of impunity. The commission plans for all elections
to be successfully concluded and for the will of the people to
prevail.

”The commission will continue to work with the National Assembly
and all stakeholders for the establishment of the Electoral
Offences Commission and Tribunal recommended by the Uwais Committee
on Electoral Reforms (2008); the Lemu Committee on post-election
violence (2011) and, most recently, the Ken Nnamani Committee on
constitutional and electoral reform (2017).

”At the moment, INEC is saddled with the responsibility of
prosecuting electoral offenders. We have drawn public attention to
our constraint in this regard. We have no capacity to arrest
offenders and conduct investigation without which successful
prosecution is impossible.”

Yakubu lamented that politicians sponsored thugs who disrupted
and circumvented elections.

He cited instances where those arrested for disrupting elections
and perpetrating violent were never prosecuted.

Yakubu said: “Over the years, we have worked closely with the
Nigeria Police Force. Since 2015, we have received a total of 149
case files, including 16 cases arising from the 2019 general
elections. The cases are prosecuted in the states where the alleged
offences were committed. ”Unlike pre-election and post-election
cases, there is no timeframe for the prosecution of electoral
offenders.

“A case may go on for several years. Some of the cases were
dismissed for want of diligent prosecution while in some states,
the Attorneys-General entered nolle prosequi to get the alleged
offenders off the hook.

He added: “Even where the commission recorded the most
successful prosecution of electoral offenders following the
violence witnessed in the Minjibir bye-election in Kano State in
2016, it is unclear how many of the 40 offenders sentenced to
prison with the option of fine actually spent time in jail.

“The fine was paid presumably by their sponsors. That is why we
believe that the Electoral Offences Commission and tribunal will
dispense justice dispassionately and speedily in the same way that
the electoral court deals with violators in other countries such as
South Africa.

”We also hope that the security agencies will get to the root of
all violations and support the commission to prosecute not just the
thugs that terrorise voters and INEC officials, snatch election
materials at polling units and collation centres, but their
sponsors as well.”

The move by INEC seems to be a U-turn from its earlier position
that SCR, introduced in 2015 , had outlived its usefulness.

One of its National Commissioners, Festus Okoye had last month
said, INEC must find solution to the issue of smart card reader.
The smart card reader has lost its vibrancy in relation to the
electoral process, because the political elite has found a way
around it.

“So, rather than use the smart card reader, they just ignore it,
because ultimately, they know that when they get to the court, what
the court will be saying is that: you want to prove over voting? We
want to see the voter register and we want the INEC forms and not
the smart card reader.”