The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday dispelled media reports that the Commission may postpone the general elections. The National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu stated this in an interview on Osasu Show posted on the show’s YouTube Channel.
“I cannot see any possibility of a postponement. We started this a long time ago; we have gone ahead with preparations. INEC is not even contemplating the possibility of a postponement.”
He said the commission had contacted the National Youth Service Corps to release corps members for elections.
“We are liaising with the NYSC for ad hoc workers to be used for the elections, and where there are shortfalls, the commission has a very clear policy: we will make up the difference by using students of federal tertiary institutions.
“Unless the number is exhausted and there is still a shortfall, we will then go to the state tertiary institutions.”
He assured that the Commission had innovated by introducing technology to address some key challenges that had bedeviled electoral processes in the country.
“Between 2015 and November 2018, we conducted elections in 195 constituencies, the largest number of offseason elections. The turnout varied from a little over 50 percent in Katsina to as low as 2.9 percent in Ifako/Ijaye in Lagos and 3.4 percent in Eti Osa state constituency in Lagos.
“I think because elections in Nigeria have progressively and incrementally improved, there is no possibility now that you will have the kind of margins that we used to experience in our elections before the introduction of technology, basically the PVC and the smart card reader. The elections in terms of outcomes and votes are becoming more international. You can see the outcomes of the elections are becoming more and more competitive and closer to the kind of results we see even in advanced democracies.”
