The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday in Abuja made virtual and public presentation of its `Report of the 2019 General Election’.
The commission also made public presentation of the ` Review of the 2019 General Election: Report of the Commission’s Retreats and Stakeholder Engagements’’.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, while presenting the two reports said that the `Report of the 2019 General Election’ has 13 Chapters covering major issues.
These according to him include challenges associated with the preparation and conduct of the election, lessons learnt and specific recommendations for addressing them.
Yakubu said that the second report “the Review of the 2019 General Election’’ contained 180 recommendations including recommendations for test running and adoption of e-voting as well as adoption of early/special voting for election duty and other related officials.
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Other recommendations are:
-Early presentation of proposed amendments to the electoral legal framework, which should be concluded at least 12 months to the next general election, to provide effective planning.\
-The creation of electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal with powers to arrest, investigate and prosecute electoral offenders.
-Automation of the nomination process to facilitate the storage, access and retrieval of candidates’ data.
-The commission’s consideration of sourcing of its ad hoc personnel from its pool of retired staff.
-Delivery of all non-sensitive election materials to states and FCT offices 30 days to any election so as ensure proper audit and quality assurance.
-The need to review the criteria for recruiting collation officers and returning officers.
-Sourcing of Registration Area Camps (RAC) managers from the staff of the commission.
-Improvement of the voter registration to accommodate online registration and printing of permanent voter cards on monthly basis instead of the current quarterly basis.
-The report also recommended that the Nigerian Constitution should be amended to provide for stronger legislation against defection by elected members of the national and state houses of assembly from one party to another.
“Such defectors should automatically lose their seats except in the case of merger of two or more parties,’’ it said.
