Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday, asked Nigerians not to expect next year’s general elections to be perfect.
He said that the time- table for the election would be released this week.
He spoke when the
United States Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. James Enwhistle paid him a courtesy
visit at the INEC’s headquarters in Abuja.
“We are not promising
a perfect election in 2015, but we are confident that we will do our best,” he
said, but added that the conduct of the election would be better than than the
2011 polls."
He further stated
that the commission would embark on a retreat this week during which the
commissioners would prepare: time-table for the 2015 polls; budget for the
continuous voter registration to be conducted later this year and address other
issues that are relevant to the forth-coming polls.
According to Jega,
the commission had taken steps to ensure credible polls.
He cited improved
staff training and re-organisation as some of the steps taken by INEC to ensure
that the 2015 elections were free and fair.
Said he:”We have also
embarked on strategic planning and improved our relationship with our
development partners.
“It is our
responsibility under the Electoral Act to do voter education and even political
education generally. But it has always been challenging because the resources
available to discharge that responsibility are usually insufficient, given the
enormity of the task of dealing with a large illiterate population and getting
them really understand what to do, not only during voting but also on the
larger issues of choosing good candidates and so on. So there is a lot of
things the CSOs can do.”
Culled From Vanguard
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