Experts want Electoral Act reviewed, tribunal for electoral offenders established

The Centre for Transparency Advocacy, experts in election monitoring, on Thursday proposed additional amendments to the 2022 Electoral Act to address some of the difficulties the Independent National Electoral Commission faced in the general elections of 2023.

As a result, they argued in favour of creating an electoral offences commission and tribunal to handle electoral offenders.

Faith Nwadishi, the executive director of CTA, made the suggestion while presenting three reports on the general elections of 2023 in Abuja.

The reports included ‘The 2023 General Elections Observation Report: A Perception Study on the Understanding of the Mandate of the Electoral Umpire by Stakeholders’ and ‘The 2023 Local Elections Observation Report: A Perception Study on the Local Elections “A compendium of the 2019 general elections and off-season elections conducted by INEC up to 2022,” etc.

Nwadishi claimed that despite ongoing difficulties, the Nigerian electoral system has improved despite concerns being raised about voting procedures, logistics, vote buying, intimidation, and violence.

There are some areas we suggested be reviewed, the speaker said. The Electoral Act, for example, mentions civic and voter education, and INEC was given the responsibility. However, we also know that civic education should fall under the purview of a national orientation organisation. Voter education is distinct from civic education. Voter education is included in civic education. We must be able to actually transfer INEC’s responsibility for civic education to the agency designated by law to carry out the task.

“We’re also urging the parties involved to quickly establish an electoral offences commission. The course we are currently on is unsustainable. People are committing crimes, but we assert that INEC is the prosecuting agency most often because INEC has that authority.

“On election day, we encountered members of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practises and Other Related Offences Commission. How successful was that, though? It would greatly improve our electoral system if we had a dedicated commission tasked with prosecuting those who violate the law regarding elections. With high profile cases and all of that, I believe it will greatly aid in the rule reforming of our electoral system itself.

Additionally, Nwadishi called for sanctions against political parties that fail to send enough agents to polling places on election day.

“Polling units determine the outcome of elections because that is where voters gather to cast their ballots and where the results are announced prior to being collected. Therefore, she said, “There should actually be a sanction for a political party running for office but unable to deploy party agents at that level. If you don’t have people representing you at that level, that means you won’t have a copy of your result.

The issues surrounding political party primaries should be reviewed by INEC, according to Emeka Ononammadu, a former resident electoral commissioner in Enugu State.

While highlighting the need for INEC to continue utilising technology in the electoral process, Ononammadu insisted that INEC must be given the freedom to concentrate on the technical administration of elections.

First of all, the Electoral Act as it relates to political party primaries needs to be reviewed, he said. This is because, as Nigerians who are party members, that particular law doesn’t seem to make political party primaries more inclusive of a larger population of party members. Of course, we all know that the test of political party primaries almost graduates to the general elections.

“I believe that whether the election administration agency performed well or poorly each year, there always seems to be a problem with how people view it, and advancing technology in our elections is the key to lowering either a positive or negative perception.

The creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal has also been under discussion, but I believe that adding INEC’s investigative authority would be excessive.

He also urged INEC to reconsider the hiring and use of ad hoc staff, arguing that the problem of impersonation needs to be thoroughly examined.