Experts dissect Electoral Act, tasks INEC on implementation 

Stakeholders in the Nigerian project penultimate week converged on Abuja at a 2-day training workshop for journalists organised by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) to acquaint the media with the new Electoral Act recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The workshop which was held between 16th and 17th of March, was for a selected journalists with the theme: “The 2022 Electoral Act: Emerging Challenges and Improvements.”

In one of the sessions, Jide Ojo, Executive Director of OJA Development Consult and political analyst, speaking on the topic ‘Can Electoral Reforms Guarantee Fair, Peaceful, Credible and Inclusive Elections in Nigeria,” hailed the signing into law of the Electoral Act,\ 2022 but expressed concern over its implementation.

Ojo, who described the new law as particularly remarkable, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to “hit the ground running” on its implementation.

He said, “When the law makes provisions, modalities should be on ground for implementation, otherwise, you set a ground for failures.

“They need to engage the parties to enable them to know where there are facilities for electronic transmission of results and where facilities don’t exist. As far as I am concerned, it is a good thing, but I believe it is behind schedule. You don’t sign a bill into law when the election is a few months away.”

Ojo described the assent to the Bill as a welcome development since it would allow for the electronic transmission of results.

In a paper: “A Primer For Understanding Nigeria’s Electoral Act 2022,” Executive Director YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, explained that the new law has the potentials for checking electoral malpractices, including rigging, snatching of ballot boxes, tearing or alterations of results sheets among other malfeasances.

Barrister Festus Okoye in a paper presentation entitled “INEC and Electoral Act, 2022: Operational Challenges and Emerging Risks” the National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education of INEC said the commission could face logistical challenges that could be taken advantage of.

“Technology is a tool that must be deployed by humans, [but] humans are imperfect so there will be some issues,” he says. “The goal is to keep them at the barest minimum.”