The Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to explore all avenues to adopt the e-voting system in future elections.
The President of CCN, Rev. Benebo Fubara-Manuel and General Secretary, Dr. Yusuf Ibrahim Wushishi, made the call yesterday in Abuja while formally presenting the council’s 2019 election observation report and the ‘CCN Statement’ on the polls.
The council condemned the killings recorded across the country, saying this should not be happening at the present stage of the nation’s democracy.
While praying God to bring comfort to the families of citizens who lost their lives, Fubara-Manuel urge law enforcement agencies to ensure that the perpetrators of the killings and other forms of violence are fished out and prosecuted accordingly to serve as a deterrent to those contemplating making themselves available for such dastardly acts in future elections.
According to him, the CCN recruited and trained 2,600 domestic observers who were deployed across the 36 states and the FCT to monitor the elections.
“We acknowledge the effort of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in ensuring that the elections held as rescheduled and for being proactive in responding to the complaints of voters especially cases of failed card readers and extension of voting time for some polling units where voting commenced late.
“We equally applaud INEC for adjusting to early arrival of officials and voting materials during the gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections.
“The Council, however, called on INEC to improve on its logistic arrangement, putting into consideration the reality of infrastructure and human capacity available within limited time.
“No element in the chain of operation should be underestimated so as put an end to the issue of election postponement and late resumption at polls.
“INEC must also ensure that the reoccurring technical issues relating to the failure of the Smart Card Readers are completely resolved.
“INEC should work in partnership with CSOs to give citizens of voting age intense civic and voter’s education. This should be an ongoing activity and should start immediately not just some fire brigade approach usually carried out shortly before elections.
“Newly registered political parties should be restricted to only state level elections as they do not usually have the capacity to vie for federal level positions and are in the habit of withdrawing their candidature or collapsing their structure to support a leading party after being captured for election. Multiple logos and names are also capable of confusing voters too,” Fubara-Manuel said.
He said that centralization of payment of INEC ad-hoc staff should be adopted to avoid protests capable of delaying opening of polls as demonstrated by ad-hoc staff at Kosofe Local Government in Lagos State.
He said, “The menace of vote buying seems intensified by political parties. Measures should be taken to ensure arrests and prosecution of all culprits. Adequate security intelligence should be provided at all polling units in order to reduce cases of vote buying.
