2023 General Elections: We’ll Scrupulously Apply Electoral Laws to Ensure Credibility, Says INEC Chairman

By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News

ABUJA: The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the Commission will scrupulously apply the electoral laws without fear or favour to ensure free, fair, credible, inclusive and transparent elections come February, 2023. 

This is just as he urged political party Chairmen and members to commit to ensuring that the 2023 General election would be devoid of deliberate infractions to the 2022 Electoral Act, essentially by allowing the electoral process to run smoothly, thereby growing a rich democratic culture and acceptable election outcome. 

The Chairman made this known in his keynote address on Wednesday at The Electoral Institute’s Annual Abubakar Momoh Memorial Lecture and Training of Political Party Executives on the topic, “The Electoral Act 2022: Imperatives for Political Parties and the 2023 General Elections”. 

Prof. Yakubu who was represented by the Chairman, Board of Electoral Institute, Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, reiterated that INEC has no preferred party or candidate, adding that the Commission will only ensure that all valid votes count and the winners are decided solely by the voters. 

According to him, “As the 2023 general elections draw near, it is imperative for all stakeholders, especially the Political parties to note the major features introduced by the new Electoral Act 2022 and the possible implications of these changes on the upcoming elections: the happenings that accompanied the recent party primaries attest to this. 

“I will only remind you that these imperatives contained in the Electoral act are ingredients for party building, stabilization of Electoral rules and democratic consolidation. These are milestones in Nation building for which Prof. Abubakar fought for in his lifetime. He was always at the forefront of advocating for a free, fair, credible and participatory electoral system through research, capacity building for the staff of the Commission, and engagement of vigorous voter education activities”, he stated. 

Speaking on the importance of the lecture, the INEC Chairman said, “The Momoh memorial lecture is a platform established by the Commission to project the ideals of a social activist and an advocate of citizens involvement in Elections and Nation building. It is therefore befitting to ride on this platform for advocacy on the electoral legal framework that will drive the 2023 General Election. 

“The lecture is to enlighten and sensitize political parties on the new provisions in the Act and the derivative subsidiary laws of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)”, he remarked. 

For his part, the Director-General of The Electoral Institute (TEI) Dr. Sa’ad Umar Idris, in his welcome address, said the topic was carefully chosen considering the necessity and requirements for conducting the 2023 General Elections under a new law and the implications of this new electoral law for not only the Commission, but also in particular, the 18 Political Parties that will be fielding candidates for the various elective offices in the General Election. 

The topic, he added, is also very apt, to train the Executives—National Chairman and Secretaries— of the 18 Political Parties on the various Sections of the new Act and the critical implications embedded in many of its Sections.

He pointed out that, “The unfortunate preponderance of many legal cases arising even from the pre-election period up till after the conduct of the elections, indeed have at many times brought a lot of challenges to the electoral process and our country’s political development at large. It is hoped that with this lecture and training for party executives, due influence can be brought to bear and reduce the swift race to the courts that has characterised our political space in the last 10 years.

“It is my belief that this memorial lecture will interrogate the relationship between the new Act and the roles of all stakeholders particularly the Commission and the 18 Political Parties and 2023 General Elections, and suggest ways of conducting free, fair, credible and inclusive elections without unnecessary litigations that could be drawbacks to the election”, he noted.

Furthermore, the Guest Lecturer, Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George while speaking on the topic, “The Electoral Act 2022: Imperatives for Political Parties and the 2023 General Elections”, stressed that politics is not anarchy and disorderliness, adding that it must be punctuated by justice, fairness and orderliness.

He also called on Political parties to as a matter of necessity, obey their own rules, saying that “the Supreme Court has decided in several cases that political parties must obey their own constitutions as the court will not allow them to act arbitrarily or as they like”.

Speaking on Political Party financing, he urged INEC to ask for the source of finance of political parties. “The bulk is on the table of INEC to look into the finances of these political parties. You can use your power to take illicit money and channel it into the federation account. Unless we begin to do this, nothing is going to change”, he said. 

Recall that on 25th February 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2022 Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law. The 2022 Electoral Act (“the new Act”) repeals the Electoral Act No. 6, 2010 (“the former Act”) and is intended to bring innovations to the processes and procedures for the conduct of Elections in line with the mandate of the Commission.