2015: Observers will be responsible for their security – Jega....

… INEC to use electronic accreditation for elections The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Thursday warned all local and foreign observers coming for 2015 general elections to make adequate provisions for their own security.
Speaking at a one- day workshop entitled: “Election Observation Outside Nigeria; Lessons Learnt,” he maintained that the commission would only focus its attention on engaging security agencies for the overall conduct of the elections.
Apart from Venezuela where the state prescribes the areas where the observers should visit, he said that there is no country where the electoral commission or the state provides security for the observers.
He said: “What we do in Nigeria is to liaise with the security agencies to give security, provide security for the overall conduct of the elections, the observers can make their own security arrangements.
“We even have some countries like India that do not allow anybody to observe their elections. However, we accept that the presence of the foreign observers will add credibility to the outcome of the elections.”
To ensure free, fair and credible elections in 2015, he said that both the leadership of the commission and staff have visited about 16 countries for peer review and know the importance of planning ahead for the conduct of a tasking project like elections.
According to him, the application of latest Information communication technology has helped in most countries, especially in the developed ones, to ensure credible elections and politicians in those countries don’t take elections as a must win like what is happening in most African countries.
“Technology has helped to remove some logistics problems which INEC will take lessons from, but I must add that the use of technology in Nigeria would be difficult in the collation of results so as to avoid what happened in Kenya where a lot of crisis ensued because of that. In matured democracies, even ordinary A4 paper is used as ballot and nothing happens,” he stated.
Speaking earlier, the National Commissioner in charge of Election Monitoring and Observation, Dr. Ishmale Igbani, said the biggest challenge facing the commission is how to conduct a free, fair credible, transparent and clean election in 2015.
He charged all the operatives that will play one role or the other in the conduct of the elections to be above board especially as there are now rising intimidation, death threats, blackmail and all sorts of intrigues.
Meanwhile, INEC will use electronic accreditation for voters in the next general elections.
The Bayelsa State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Edwin Nwatalari, disclosed this on Thursday while presenting the commission’s strategic plan for 2012 to 2015 at a stakeholders’ meeting in Yenagoa.
He said the commission had concluded all the arrangements to begin a pilot test of the schemes in some states where governorship elections had been scheduled for 2014.
He said: “Although we cannot do electronic voting but we will do electronic accreditation.”
He added that the commission introduced the scheme to consolidate the gains of the 2011 elections.
Nwatalari stated the decision was also taken to appreciate the goodwill the commission had so far enjoyed from members of the public