INEC: 2023 polls may be cancelled or postponed over security threats

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the 2023 general election may be cancelled or postponed if the security challenges bewildering the country were not monitored and dealt with decisively.

The electoral umpire said insecurity could ultimately culminate in the cancellation and/or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies to hinder the declaration of elections’ results and precipitate a constitutional crisis.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this at the ‘validation workshop of election security training resources’ in Abuja on Monday.

Yakubu, who was represented by the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Chairman Board of Electoral Institute (BEI), Prof. Abdullahi Zuru, however, said the commission is not leaving anything to chance in ensuring that intensive and extensive security are provided for election personnel, materials, and processes in the 2023 general election.

Yakubu said the election security was significant to the commission given the current insecurity challenges in various parts of the country and the fact that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members constituted the core of the Polling Unit election officials.

“This (cancellation or postponement of election) must not be allowed to happen and shall not be allowed to happen.

“Therefore, security personnel in particular, and all election officials, in general, must be security conscious and alert to unusual activities in their environment and must be fully equipped to deal with any challenge at all times.

“To this end, the National Security Adviser, Gen. Mohammed Babagana Monguno, and the Chairman, INEC have jointly assured the nation that conducive environment will be provided for successful conduct of the 2023 general election.

“Similarly, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, has conducted election security management workshops across the six geopolitical zones.

“On its part the commission, through The Electoral Institute, has institutionalised the development and implementation of a cascaded training mechanism for security personnel as a critical component of its training plan,” he stated.

Yakubu said INEC, in its commitment to improve electoral process, had introduced new innovative technologies and procedures and made commitments to Nigeria that technologies, now backed with the 2022 Electoral Act, would be deployed for the 2023 general election.

According to the INEC boss, the technologies include the Bimodal Verification and Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Results Viewing (IReV) to upload real-time PU result using the same BVAS.

He said the commitments required innovative security strategies and deployments for protection of voters, election personnel, materials, equipment, the electoral processes, and the general public and infrastructure.

Yakubu said reports on the conduct of security operatives during the elections conducted by the commission specifically the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states showed progressive and commendable improvement in their disposition to electoral training and professionalism on election duties.

In his remarks, the Director-General of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Dr. Sa’ad Idris, said the validation workshop was in line with INEC’s practice to review training manuals and resources.

Idris said that was in line with the 2022 Guidelines and Regulations for the Conduct of Elections and the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCESS) report on election security.

The Star