The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has accused political parties participating in this September 21 next month’s Edo State governorship election, of violating political campaign guidelines.
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It expressed disappointment that none of the political parties has submitted the dates and locations of major campaign rallies and processions, chiding them for complaining of incidents when they occur.
Commission’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, made the accusation in his remarks at an emergency meeting with leaders of the political parties held in Abuja on Thursday.Â
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While urging them to maintain decorum and civility throughout the duration of their campaigns, the electoral umpire boss ruled out the possibilities of returning to manual accreditation of polling, collation agents.Â
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According to him, “the commission is aware that you are in the middle of an electioneering campaign in Edo State. I urge you to continue to maintain decorum and civility in your campaigns and fully comply with the commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of rallies and processions.
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“So far, no political party has submitted to the commission the dates and locations of your major campaign rallies and processions but some of you are quick to complain of incidents when they occur. Doing so will enable a better coordination of your campaign activities. Not for the first time, the commission is once again enclosing the Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties, Part 4 of which covers the conduct of political campaigns, rallies and processions for your compliance,” he said.
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On the accreditation of party agents, Yakubu said: “Let me now turn to a matter that requires your urgent attention, i.e. the nomination of polling and coalition agents for the Edo governorship election.
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“Some of you here may recall that in consultation with the political parties, we replaced the manual process for the submission of the list of agents with a digital platform. We have done the same for accreditation of observers and media organisations in consultation with the stakeholders.
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“On our own, we have also replaced the manual process of recruiting ad hoc staff with a digital platform called the INECPRES. All these activities are now done electronically on a number of dedicated portals. This has simplified our processes and reduced costs for all stakeholders.
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“However, after harvesting the details of polling and collation agents uploaded to the portal for the Edo State election, we discovered that there are compliance issues with regard to the quality of uploads, particularly as they relate to the images of Polling Unit, Ward and Local Government agents.
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“This problem cuts across all political parties despite the fact that this is not being done for the first time. And in keeping with our practice before major elections, we trained officials nominated by political parties. We also set up a Help Desk in the event of any political party needing assistance.
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“I want to emphasise that there will be no going back to the manual process. It is gone for good. Already, observer groups and media organisations are in full compliance with the digital procedure. Political parties cannot be an exception.
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“You must do the needful instead of constantly complaining of shortfalls in the number of accreditation tags supplied for your agents. We will only produce tags for uploads that meet the requirements of our regulations and guidelines.
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“The commission is determined that your agents at Polling Units and Collation Centres must be identified by name and their photographs clearly printed on their accreditation tags duly authorised by the commission,” he said.
