The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged to synergise with other public and non-governmental institutions to enhance the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
The call was contained in the communique issued at the end of a One-Day Focus Group discussion, organized by INEC under the auspices of the Electoral Institute -TEI and the University of Ibadan Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis [UI-Lisa] on Voter Apathy Towards Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and Elections In Nigeria, held in Abuja Monday.
The forum whose participants were drawn from carefully selected stakeholder groups including registered political parties, non-governmental organizations , Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), religious bodies, academia, press, INEC officials and others has identified “bad governance, loss of confidence in the political class, lack of democratic dividend, insecurity, threat of violence and Lack of voters’ confidence in the election process and outcomes and there is doubt of whether their votes will count or not”, as some of the reasons for increasing voter apathy in the electoral process.
It also noted that a, “Large number of people are unintentionally excluded from voting. These include security personnel, Nigerians in Diaspora, prisoners, INEC ad hoc and regular staff, patients in hospitals and workers on essential duties.”
It therefore recommended increase civic education by political parties, CSOs and INEC, and “synergy between INEC and the National Assembly to provide a comprehensive framework that would enhance the integrity of electoral processes.”
The forum also recommended that “to enhance voting participation, Justice Uwais Report 2008 should be re-visited. Also, there is need to amend the Electoral Act to allow people vote wherever they are irrespective of where they register.”
Other recommendations contained in the communique include: “INEC should synergize with relevant institutions in order to achieve a target of 70% voters’ turnout; INEC should do more to ensure that security is beefed up before, during and after elections to erase the atmosphere of fear; and ad-hoc staff should be screened, cross-examined and their integrity ascertained”.
On Continuous Voter Registration Exercise, the group implored INEC to collaborate with relevant agencies with comparable databases for the purpose of cleaning the register of voters, and called for decentralisation of the CVR exercise by creating more registration areas in order to reduce the challenge of proximity.
The group stated that for confidence to be restored, INEC “must do everything possible to ensure that the CVR process is made easy and faster in order to ensure expediency”. It added that “INEC and relevant security agencies should expose and prosecute all offenders of multiple registrations as a deterrent to others in future”.
Still on ways to improve the CVR exercise, INEC was urged to “explore the possibility of carrying out on-line registration as a second option which will make it possible for people to register from everywhere.”
