Why we haven't fixed dates for bye elections

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Chairman of the Indepedent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has explained why the Commission is yet to unveil timetable and schedule of activities for outstanding bye elections in certain federal constituencies and senatorial districts in the country.

Speaking at his Commission quarterly consultative meeting with media executives held in Abuja on Thursday, Yakubu attributed the seeming delay to the electoral umpire preparations for the off-season elections slated for next month in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi States.

The INEC Chairman also said the Commission was waiting for conclusion of pending litigations on the outcome of certain cases arising from petitions trailing the outcome of the elections before it could fix a definite date for the bye elections.

Tribune Online checks revealed that in Ebonyi South, the senator-elect, Dave Umahi resigned from the red chamber to pick up a ministerial appointment in the Federal Executive Council of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In the same vein, former Speaker of the House of Representatives in the ninth National Assembly, Femi Gbajabiamila who won a fresh mandate to represent Surulere Federal Constituency equally resigned from the green chamber to pick up appointment as Chief of Staff to the President.

Yakubu who revealed that 11 bye elections would be conducted also said aside the resignation of federal lawmakers who picked cabinet positions, vacancies were declared in other constituencies as a result of death of the sitting lawmakers.

He said: “We would have released time table for the 11 bye elections arising from 2023 elections.

“After the off-season elections, we will release timetable and schedule of activities for the bye elections. We also want the court to make pronouncements on all the outstanding litigations, and we can then proceed to release the timetable.”

Also speaking at the event, a National Commissioner, Dr Baba Bila expressed concern over the leadership tussle at the national secretriat of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) which he noted could constitute a hindrance to logistics for next month off-season elections.

He said:” We have secured all the non sensitive materials and delivered to the three states. Regarding sensitive materials,we are working in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in this regards.

“In terms of logistics, we are talking with NURTW, but we need to vacate the action of the Ministry of Labour which suspended the national leadership of NURTW. We are talking with Ministry of Labour but if we don’t succeed, we will deal directly with individual owners of the vehicles.

“Another challenge is distribution of petroleum products, we need to secure petroleum products at reasonable rate.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, the INEC Chairman restated his assurance that both the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for both biometric authentication of voters and the upload of result to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) would work successfully having been tested in a recent mock accreditation conducted by the Commission.

He also said INEC was working round the clock with several security agencies to ensure safety of its staff, materials and prospective voters during the off-season elections.

Similarly, you may recall that at our last meeting, we promised to share with you our plans and preparations for the off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled for Saturday 11th November 2023. I am glad to note that many of you here today are either directly involved in the coverage of the election or deploying teams of journalists to the three States. In fact, our updated statistics show that 94 media organisations, deploying 1,255 personnel, have been accredited for the elections. In the next few days, the accredited media organisations will be notified of the date for the collection of the identity cards for their officials.

“About two weeks ago, the Commission conducted a mock accreditation involving actual voters in designated polling units in the three States. By doing so, we tested the efficacy of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for both biometric authentication of voters and the upload of result to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV). Some of you observed the mock accreditation exercise and viewed the results on the IReV portal. We have received no adverse report so far. By this, we are encouraged that the test was successful and we look forward to improved performance of the BVAS in voter accreditation and result upload in the forthcoming governorship elections and beyond.

“Election is a multi-stakeholder activity. In discharging our responsibilities, we will continue to engage with all stakeholders. One of such engagements is with the security agencies. In previous elections, media organisations have expressed concern about the safety of journalists, technical staff and protection of the equipment you deploy on election day. Similarly, you have on several occasions urged the Commission to intercede with the security agencies to grant you unimpeded access to polling and collation locations. I want to reassure you that we will continue to do so as we engage with the security agencies both at the national level and in the three states.”

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