INEC Chair Mahmood Yakubu said the eight items are part of the 142 identified recommendations from the report of the 2023 general elections.
Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, said it would soon present to the joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives on Electoral Matters eight items of electoral reforms for consideration.
The Chairperson of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Thursday during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of the commission in Abuja.
Mr Yakubu said the eight items are part of the 142 identified recommendations from the report of the 2023 general elections.
He said 86 of the 142 recommendations require administrative action by INEC, which prompted Thursday’s meeting with the RECs, who play a “frontline role in the implementation of the recommendations.”
He said 48 of the recommendations require action by a variety of stakeholders, including security agencies, mobile network operators, statutory bodies, political parties, transport unions, civil society organisations and the media.
He added, however, that eight of the recommendations require legislative action by the National Assembly.
“Very soon, the Commission will make a presentation to the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Electoral Matters as they continue to deliberate on electoral reform,” the INEC chairman said.
Part of the items for legislative actions include the unbundling of INEC with the establishment of an electoral offences tribunal and a separate agency to handle the registration and regulation of political parties, legal clarity as regards the “manual transfer versus the electronic transmission of results,” he said.
Mr Yakubu stated that the recommendations, drawn after internal and external engagements, deal with “the general state of preparedness, voter management, voter education and public communication, political parties and candidate management, electoral operations and logistics management, election officials and personnel, partnership and collaboration, monitoring and supervision, election technology, voting and result management, election security, electoral offences and the electoral legal framework.”
He listed some of the recommendations being considered for implementation by his commission to include early or special voting for officials on election duty and the phasing out of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) as the sole means of accreditation for voting.
