The Coalition for Credible Election in 2023, made up of civil society organisations, have expressed fears that INEC is not ready for the coming polls on the grounds that only about 45million out of the registered 93million Nigerians have collected their PVCs.
They said with this situation happening just 60days or bellow to the polls show that the electoral umpire is about to dis-enfranchise many Nigerians, adding that with the polls set to happen just in a matter of weeks INEC is still telling some registered voters that their PVCs are not ready.
Declaring all these Wednesday, Spokesman for the group, Hon .Emmanuel Mok in a press briefing held at Lagos Chamber of Commerce Exhibition Centre, Aluasa -Ikeja stated that its worrisome that many of the 176,000 polling units created by INEC are under the control of Islamic Jihadists, bandits and unknown gun men across the country or in ghost towns whose inhabitants are now living in IDP camps.
He said weeks to the elections INEC is yet to publicize strategists it has to hold elections in such ungoverned places and for Nigerians holing up in IDP camps, hinting that the above are clear indications that the election may not hold.
Mr Mok who was flanked by other members of the coalition which include Diaspora Medics 4 Good Governance(DM4GG),International Society for Civil Liberties and The Rule of Law(INTERSOCIETIES),Nzuko Umuna ADHOC Committee for Voter Mobilization &Electoral Participation among others stated that the flagrant belief that the BVAS is incorruptible should be re-examined given reports that politicians are buying PVCs from poor Nigerians across the country.
According to him its either the politicians like wasting funds or know what the rest of us does not know about the BVAS machine, he therefore asked Nigerians to be vigilant and ensure that the machine used in their polling units are properly examine.
He posited that we have witnessed violence in the on-going election campaigns like the attack on Atiku Abubakar’s supporters in Borno, the killing of Labour Party women Leader in Kaduna etc harping on the fact that ”We then as a people, as a nation must stand up to confront the dangers of very imminent community election violence by these desperate politicians.
”Therefore we ask INEC to put in place credible plan and structure to ensure that anyone who instigates, funds or enables or participates in action to disrupt the election, intimidate voters , induce voters with money or other gifts -food stuff -or whatever are checkmated ”.
The Coalition maintains that the present protocol for collection(ie PVC) using the ward offices and the local government offices are a challenge as every state board and local government area staff are mostly from the ruling party in that state.
” Our experience has been that competing party members frustrate the members of their opposing parties as much as possible and this has affected collecting and distribution of PVC.”
On planned elections in dangerous unprotected areas, officials of the Coalition in their various interjections at the briefing posited that INEC should as quickly as possible relocate all such polling units out of such insecure locations to more safe protectable locations within the state and local government areas concerned in liaison with military.
Therefore, they declared that the electoral act of 2022 provides that INEC must print and give each registered citizen a voter card so that they can exercise their constitutional right to vote.
”Now if INEC does not issue a registered citizen their voter card that person is disenfranchised. Hence INEC can rig the election if it makes it possible for some segment of the population to collect their PVCs and another segment to find it very difficult to collect their PVCs. Also if the networks fail on Election Day the area can be disenfranchised so alternate to these are necessary’’.
Thus, their suggestion that” on election day duly registered qualified citizens who have not collected their PVC be identified as stated with their temporary voters card or registration slips then their biometrics be verified using the BVAS machines and if okay vote, under the attentive observation of the party agents and other queued voters at the polling unit. This way duly registered voters will be accredited to vote, Crooks/imposters will be identified by the same process and prevented from voting.
”Another group of illegal voters with or without PVC are child voters (any citizen younger than 18 years) if any of such presents themselves to vote such should be refused and arrested; others are Foreigners. The community populations need to be vigilant to identify foreigners in the neighborhood and report them to ensure they are prevented from voting. The Security agents should be called on to arrest any such persons
