The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, met with leaders of the political parties in Abuja yesterday to streamline the arrangements for the 2015 general elections.
In his remarks, Jega who cautioned the political chieftains to eschew actions and comments that could heat the polity, however blamed the challenges confronting the distributions of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) on the tough political economy facing the commission.
His words: “This meeting is very important for us because it came less than two months to the general elections. It is important we use this opportunity to discuss pertinent issues relating to the conduct of the elections. We are aware that many of you are just coming from party congresses and conventions and we are all set in terms of conduct of the elections.”
“The challenges before us are to be accommodating, continue to work together and do our best to improve the electoral process and our country. I want to assure you that we will continue to offer the hand of friendship and partnership to all the stakeholders especially the registered political parties and key stakeholders in the electoral process.
“We have always used every opportunity we had as a commission to draw the attention of the political parties to the need to continue to respect the rules of the game and abide by the code of conduct which they signed and ensure that the actions and utterances of either party leaders or candidates that will promote peace and eschew languages capable of creating violence and conflicts.
“As we draw closer to February 2015 elections, we must do our best to promote peace and minimize the possibility of violence. Today’s meeting is about the revisions we are making about the guidelines for the 2015 elections. It is important because even though most aspects of the guidelines are the same with what we have used since 2011, there are new aspects that we want to draw your attentions to especially some of them that would require your input before we finalise what to do then..
“You are aware that we are going to use Card Readers in the 2015 general elections, there are aspects of the use of the Card Reader that concern us, which we want to present to you. We will like to use this opportunity to brief you about the continuous voter registration and the distribution of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
“Again, INEC has attracted lots of comments and criticisms about the manners we have distributed the cards and conducted the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR). No doubt, there were some delays and frustrations on the part of many Nigerians that participated in the process, we regret that and have always used every opportunity to explain that it was not deliberate, but circumstances beyond our control,” he said.
