Ahead of the September 19 and October 10 governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states respectively, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned politicians planning to undermine or disrupt the processes.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has threatened that the commission would not declare the results if politicians disrupted the processes.
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He gave the warning while speaking at a virtual meeting on “Democracy and Elections in West Africa” organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington DC, in collaboration with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
The INEC boss assured of the commission’s commitment to free, fair and credible elections and warned that where an election was disrupted, the commission would not make a declaration on the outcome due to lack of adherence to guiding rules of the election.
He said, “Where the election is disrupted and the commission cannot vouch for the integrity of the process, we will not go ahead to make any declaration.”
He said there would be no point in making a declaration in such situation because the commission would not endorse fraud or function outside the minimum standard set for the conduct of credible elections anywhere.
On litigations, Prof. Yakubu said, “INEC is one of the most litigated against public institutions in the country. In the last one and the half years over the conduct of the general elections and party primaries, we have been dragged to court over 2,000 times; and it is counting.”
In her address, the Director of CDD, Idayat Hassan, called for sanctions against political parties and individuals who made effort to jeopardise electoral systems in African countries.
On his part, the Executive Director of CDD Ghana, Henry Prempeh, said the COVID-19 pandemic had compressed elections in the country.
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