…Seeks Scrapping Of SIECs
By Tom Zaneni, Abuja
The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has opposed the proposed bill before the Senate seeking the establishment of Local Government Electoral Commission in Nigeria (LGIEC).
IPAC insisted that such a move, if it sails through, would be a duplication of the existing State Independent National Electoral Commission which has failed to address the issues of electoral transparency, fairness and credibility.
The national chairman of IPAC, Yusuf Dantaalle, made the position of the council known at the third quarter meeting of INEC with political parties in Abuja on Monday.
Dantalle also advocated the immediate scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to further strengthen democracy at the grassroots level.
He further called for amendments to the constitution and the Electoral Act to empower INEC to conduct local government elections to restore confidence in the county’s electoral process.
Giving reasons for the IPAC’s position, Dantalle said, “The conduct of these elections is both unacceptable and ill-conceived, representing yet another electoral jamboree that hinders the nation’s democracy and squanders public funds.
“At a time when citizens are calling for a leaner government to cut down on governance costs, this so-called electoral process is a charade. It is an aberration that mocks our budding democracy, wasting taxpayers’ money that could have been better spent on developmental projects.
“SIECs lacks essential components for conducting credible elections, including voter registers, BVAS, IReV portals, ballot boxes, and trained personnel. The so-called polls they conduct only serve to increase voter apathy and erode trust in the electoral process.”
The IPAC leader re-affirmed INEC’s capacity to conduct local government elections, citing the example of the FCT Area Councils poll which he claimed were “widely regarded as free, fair, and without incident.”
