Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has expressed concerns over the security signal in Edo State ahead of the party primaries and September 19, 2020 governorship election.
INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, raised the alarm in his remarks during a virtual consultative meeting with the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) on Friday.
The electoral Commission boss particularly urged the security agents to deploy every security arrangements to ensure a peaceful party primaries, describing it as the most acrimonious part of electoral process.
“As the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic will impact on the planning and deployment strategy for the conduct of elections generally, it is necessary for ICCES to evolve effective ways of securing and protecting the integrity of the electoral process. “Fortunately, in the aftermath of recent governorship elections, ICCES set up an ad hoc committee to advise it on security arrangements for future elections. The report of the Committee, which will be presented for consideration at this meeting, is coming at an auspicious time. We should, as a matter of urgency, come up with a policy and code of conduct for security personnel in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Party primaries for the nomination of candidates for the Edo governorship election have commenced. As at Thursday, 15 out of the 18 registered political parties have invited the Commission to monitor their primaries. The process for Ondo State is scheduled for July 2 to 25, 2020. As you are aware, the conduct of primaries by political parties tends to be very acrimonious. The acrimony is carried forward into the electioneering campaigns and Election Day activities.
“Already, there are warning signals. The security agencies need to act proactively. An early engagement with political parties and aspirants is necessary in order to create the atmosphere for peaceful primaries and consequently peaceful elections,” he stated. Speaking further, the INEC boss said: “In the next few months, the Commission will hold two major elections. The end of tenure governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States scheduled for September 19, 2020 and October 10, 2020 respectively. The Commission released the timetable and schedule of activities for the two elections early this year. At that time, no one anticipated that our preparations for the elections will be done in the middle of a global health emergency.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the normal way of doing things, including the conduct of elections. For this reason, the Commission released a new policy on conducting elections in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy has been discussed with different stakeholders in the course of this this week and also shared with you for deliberation at this meeting.
“In addition to the two governorship elections, vacancies have occurred in 10 National and State constituencies in 8 States across the country. The Commission is also making preparations for the consequential bye-elections in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.”