The Nigerian government has been urged by the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, to make the recently modified Electoral Act easier for voters to understand.
Professor Joash Amupitan, the chairman of INEC, clarified that Nigeria need a straightforward electoral law that is easy for all Nigerians to comprehend and is written in a simplified manner.
At the Civil Society Network on Election Integrity and the Electoral Act’s citizens’ town hall gathering in Abuja on Sunday, Prof. Amupitan made the request.
Given that Nigeria is a very diverse nation, particularly in terms of its political and electoral environments, the INEC Chairman’s demand coincides with the debate surrounding the real-time transmission of election results, which he stated needs to be clarified.
“From the beginning to the end, we have examined the Electoral Act and some of the controversial aspects, particularly in a nation with such a diverse population,” he stated.
“What Nigeria really needs is what I refer to as simple legislation—simple language legislation—so that every Nigerian can comprehend and value the provisions of each section.
When INEC entered the picture, we believed that transmission of the results ought to be required. To be honest, though, the only issue we had was defining what we meant by “real time.”
For example, the results of the recent FCT area council election in Kuje were released on schedule for five area councils, but the Kabi ward results were not released until Sunday. Our cops were not reachable via phone, therefore we were unable to contact them.
“The sufficiency of our network is the issue, not the transmission difficulty, in my opinion.
“You anticipate being able to send your results without any obstacles in a location like FCT.
“However, due to coverage, we were unable to transmit results in real time.”
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