NO PROVISION IN 2018 BUDGET FOR 2019 ELECTIONS, INEC REVEALS

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission.

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, has decried the lack of provision in the 2018 Appropriation for the forthcoming 2019 elections. He said however, that delay in the passage of the Electoral Act prevented the Commission from including the budget of 2019 elections in the 2018 appropriation.

According to him, until legislative process is completed on the bill, the Commission would be unable to estimate effectively the cost for the election.

Prof. Yakubu disclosed this Wednesday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on INEC to defend the 2018 budget.

“We can’t complete work on the election budget unless the national assembly has helped us to complete work on the electoral act,” he said.

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Continuing, he said, “For instance, there is provision in the Bill passed by the Senate for two types of primaries; direct and indirect. One party may opt for direct, another for indirect and both will have different cost implications. What are we going to do? We have to wait until the act is passed before we know the correct figure. I will appeal to the distinguished Senators to expedite work on the electoral act so that we can have an idea of the figure.”

The INEC Chair noted that the Commission has made three key improvements on the card readers for forthcoming elections; adding that the Commission was improving the processors of smart card readers so that it becomes speedier. He also disclosed that INEC was increasing the windows where people press the fingers on election day.

“We have realised that part of the problem sometimes is with the size of the window. If the entire thumb covers the window, there is the tendency of the machine not to recognise it. The third part is to enhance it to be able to transmit from the polling Units,” he said.