The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed agitation for revision and adjustment of electoral constituency boundaries in the country.
Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, in a statement on Friday said it could not solely revisit existing delineated constituencies without the consent of the National Assembly.
Aside the statutory approval of the National Assembly, the commission called the attention of those agitating for revision of constituencies to existing provision in the 1999 Constitution that their demand could only be met 10 years after the last exercise.
The statement read in part: “While the division of the country into electoral constituencies for Senate, House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly is the responsibility of the commission, once they are established, subsequent revision of the constituencies and/or adjustment of their boundaries are the joint responsibilities of the commission and the National Assembly.
“Consequently, any such revision or adjustment must be passed by a resolution of the two houses of the National Assembly, namely the Senate and the House of Representatives.
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“As a result, the commission has been in discussion with the relevant committees of the National Assembly to arrange a meeting with the leadership of the Assembly to address some of the difficult issues in the division, revision and alteration of electoral constituency boundaries in Nigeria.
“Some of these issues, which the commission had previously brought to the attention of the National Assembly, include, but are by no means limited to, the following:
“The 1999 Constitution (as amended) does not place an obligation on INEC to revise or alter the boundaries of constituencies every 10 years, as has been canvassed by some opinions in the media. For the avoidance of doubt, Section 73 (1) of the Constitution provides for that to happen at intervals of “not less than 10 years.
“This implies that it can only happen from 10 years and above! Therefore, the Commission is not in breach of the Constitution, since the revision could happen in 10 years or more.
“The constitution also provides that the commission may embark on revision and adjustment after a national census, creation of States or by an Act of the National Assembly [Section 73 (2)]. None of these conditions actually exists at the moment. The last population census was conducted in 2006, about fifteen years ago.”
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