NIGERIA'S Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) may be forced to postpone forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States because it is yet to appoint electoral commissioners to replace several staff who have retired.
On November 15 and December 5, Kogi and Bayelsa State are scheduled to hold their governorship elections respectively and both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have selected their candidates. However, as both parties begin their campaigns, they may be forced to halt them as Inec may need to reschedule its timetable.
Inec is considering shifting the two elections due to the operational challenges posed by the retirement of most of its national commissioners whose tenure have expired. At the moment, the commission's activities are said to have been greatly hampered due to the non-constitution of a new Inec management board.
Many Inec commissioners retired after the last election and they are yet to be replaced and President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to even appoint a substantive chairman for the commission. At the moment, Amina Zakari has been named as Inec's acting chairman but there is a furore over her appointments as according to the PDP she is President Buhari's in-law.
Until a substantive chairman is named and a board of directors constituted, Inec cannot appoint commissioners to replace all those who retired. Apart from the absence of duly appointed national commissioners and resident electoral commissioners, Inec is also facing financial constraints occasioned by the freezing of its accounts by the Central Bank of Nigeria for non-compliance with the policy on the transfer of funds to the treasury single account as directed by the federal government.
Apparently, Ms Zakari, has already sent two memoranda to the presidency requesting action on the reconstitution of the board of the commission but is yet to receive a reply. Under the current timetable, political parties that will field candidates for the Kogi governorship election will start campaigning on July 24 and end them by midnight of November 19, while those of Bayelsa State would commence campaigns on September 6 and end on December 3.
An Inec spokesman said: “Ms Zakari has sent two requests to the presidency regarding the composition of the Inec board but no reply has been received at the moment. However, we have unconfirmed information that President Buhari may be announcing the appointment of Inec commissioners this week.”
Meanwhile, the former Bayelsa State governor and APC candidate Chief Timipre Sylva has boasted that his opponent, incumbent governor Seriake Dickson will be defeated just like former president, Goodluck Jonathan was during the last presidential elections. In Kogi State, the election is also between a former governor, Prince Audu Abubakar of the APC and incumbent Idris Wada of the PDP.
Comments
Post a Comment