The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) risks prison legal responsibility for failing to publish the nationwide voters’ register online as required by the Electoral Act 2022, Samson Itodo, govt director of Yiaga Africa, has stated.
Mr Itodo stated the fee was certain by Section 19 of the Act to make the register accessible online for public scrutiny, warning that its failure to accomplish that forward of the Anambra State governorship election raised questions on compliance with the regulation.
He spoke on Friday on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme whereas discussing the absence of the register from INEC’s web site lower than three weeks earlier than the election.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported that INEC failed to publish the preliminary voters’ register on its web site by the 90-day deadline earlier than the 2027 common election, regardless of a authorized requirement for the register to be made accessible online for public scrutiny.
Mr Itodo stated the wording of Section 19 left no room for the fee to resolve whether or not or not to publish the register online.
“The law is very clear. When you say that the commission shall, it means you must,” he stated.
He famous that INEC, below its former chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, had revealed the register online in the course of the earlier electoral cycle, making it accessible to Nigerians.
Mr Itodo stated the fee’s obligation to publish the register online is separate from displaying copies at polling items, which INEC stated it had already carried out.
“If INEC has not done that and we are just less than three months to the election, it means that it hasn’t complied with that particular section of the law,” he stated.
INEC officers face attainable penalties
Mr Itodo stated Section 19 gives penalties for officers who fail to adjust to the necessities for displaying the voters’ register.
He stated an INEC official or employees member convicted of failing to show the register as prescribed by regulation might face a high quality of N100,000, a six-month jail time period, or each.
He urged INEC to clarify publicly why it had not made the register accessible online, saying its silence might undermine public confidence within the electoral course of.
“I think INEC owes it to the Nigerian people, to Nigerian voters and stakeholders to really officially make a statement as to why it has been unable to implement this part of the law. But this silence does not inspire confidence,” he stated.
Mr Itodo stated the alleged breach might appeal to prison proceedings, including that whereas prosecution would ordinarily fall to the state, stakeholders might strategy the courts to compel the fee to adjust to the regulation.
Display of register differs from distribution to events
The Yiaga Africa director additionally sought to distinguish the statutory requirement to show the register for claims and objections from INEC’s separate obligation to present copies to political events earlier than an election.
He defined that the show course of permits registered voters to examine their particulars and report errors for correction.
For occasion, a voter whose gender was wrongly recorded might request a correction, whereas relations might notify the fee {that a} deceased particular person remained on the register.
Mr Itodo stated this course of was totally different from distributing the register to political events, which historically obtain copies 30 days earlier than an election.
He described the voters’ register as a basis of the electoral course of, arguing that its accessibility was important to public scrutiny and confidence in elections.
Citizens can publish polling unit outcomes
Mr Itodo additionally defended the fitting of residents, journalists and civil society organisations to publish and combination election outcomes already introduced publicly at polling items, distinguishing that exercise from INEC’s unique authority to declare winners and return elected candidates.
He defined that outcomes are introduced first at polling items earlier than transferring by way of ward, native authorities and state collation ranges, with the nationwide stage finishing the method the place relevant.
After ballots are counted at a polling unit, the presiding officer information the outcomes on the prescribed consequence sheet and is required to show them publicly, he stated.
Once displayed, the outcomes are within the public area and may be shared by residents on social media, in accordance to Mr Itodo.
“Under the law, can any Nigerian take the result and post it on their Twitter page or social? Absolutely, because it’s already public,” he stated.
He stated INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) was launched to strengthen transparency by permitting residents to evaluate polling unit outcomes uploaded to the platform with figures introduced at subsequent collation phases.
That course of, he defined, may help expose discrepancies if outcomes are altered throughout collation.
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Aggregating outcomes shouldn’t be declaring a winner
Mr Itodo stated the regulation distinguishes between asserting outcomes, declaring a winner and returning an elected candidate.
He argued that media organisations and civil society teams don’t violate the regulation by compiling figures from outcomes already introduced publicly, supplied they don’t purport to train INEC’s statutory energy to declare and return winners.
“What media, civil society can do is they can take results that are already in the public domain, that have been announced by INEC, and aggregate those results. They have not violated the law,” he stated.
He stated the facility to declare a candidate elected and return that candidate rests with INEC, and that publishing or aggregating publicly introduced polling unit outcomes doesn’t quantity to exercising that energy.
Mr Itodo added that unbiased aggregation might assist defend the integrity of the method by making it more durable for political actors to strain election officers to alter outcomes.
He stated residents remained free to share polling unit outcomes they noticed, whereas the formal declaration and return of winners remained the fee’s duty.
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