Election: Give Detailed Reasons For Postponement, ActionAid Tells INEC

Action Aid Country Director, Ene Obi

A non-governmental organisation, ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give Nigerians and other people globally the detailed reasons for postponing presidential and national assembly elections earlier scheduled for Saturday by one week.

The group, which expressed displeasure over the postponement at the ‘eleven hours’, said Nigerians deserve to know the detailed reasons for taking such action.

The Country Director of the group, Ene Obi, made the call in a statement made available to newsmen on Saturday, saying even though INEC efforts so far in delivering a democratic election is acknowledged, how the commission has gotten to the latest happening cause for serious concern.

Postponing elections, according to her, is becoming a recurring dismal in Nigeria, citing 2011 and 2015 general elections as references.

She said, “Now 2019, we expect that INEC would have used their learning from those experiences to prevent recurrence.

According to her, election is about trust and we fear that the mismanagement or miscommunication on the part of INEC can degenerate to a trust issue between the commission and the citizens.

While noting that the implications of the late postponement on the economy, citizens, security, education, and reputation of Nigeria is no doubt monumental, she said there are many questions INEC would need to answer quickly to restore peoples’ confidence in the commission.

Some of these, according to her, is that INEC should let Nigerians know the steps the commission is taking to secure the integrity of the ballot?  What happens to those ballot papers that were already sent to different polling stations? How can it guarantee the quality of the process going forward and ensures that this does not happen again?

Ene explained that the 2019 general election is a four-year project starting from the last election, worrying that what transpired within few hours to the commencement of the election is a clear indication that it is time to rethink our electoral process and adopt procedures that are cost-effective, efficient and decentralised.

She, therefore, calls on stakeholders to be proactive with the electoral process and desist from taking citizens for granted, and INEC to proactively deploy all the necessary electoral materials to the various destinations before Friday, February 22, saying all that Nigerians want is a peaceful and credible election.

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