Chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru
Jega, has renewed calls for the establishment
of an electoral offences tribunal before the
2015 general elections.
Jega made the call during a debate on ethics
and elections organised by the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation on Tuesday in Abuja.
The chairman said the tribunal would help
restore sanity to the country's electoral
process and deter people from committing
electoral offences.
Jega said: "I was privileged to serve in the
Justice Muhammad Lawal Uwais-led Committee
and I know we made a recommendation for
the establishment of a tribunal to deal with the
impunity in the way electoral offences are
being committed in Nigeria.
"We need to do something unique and that is
to establish an electoral offences tribunal
which will be saddled with the responsibility of
arrest, investigation and prosecution of
offenders."
Jega said that in the 2011 general elections,
the commission detected 870,000 cases of
multiple registrations out of the 73.5 million
voters registered.
He, however, expressed regrets that only 270
offenders had been prosecuted by the body till
date.
The chairman blamed poor funding and
inadequate staff for the commission's low
performance in the prosecution of electoral
offenders.
He said: "In INEC we have a very small legal
department and for us to effectively have legal
representation in cases of election petitions,
we have to employ legal practitioners outside
of that.
"We simply do not have the resources to
prosecute; we have done our best but what we
have done is just a drop in the ocean."
On the November gubernatorial election in
Anambra, Mr. Jega said the commission had set
out modalities for continuous voter
registration, adding that the prosecution of
those caught in multiple registration had
begun.
He promised that the modalities put in place
by the commission would serve as a deterrent
to people with the intention of indulging in
multiple voter registration.
The INEC boss also said that continuous voter
registration would be launched nationwide
before the end of the year.
"We will prosecute offenders in each state but
this will be done selectively because of the
challenges of funding and the evidence that
have been gathered by the police," he said.
Jega said that the commission had set up a unit
that would monitor campaign financing ahead
of 215 elections.
"As we move towards 2015, we should have
more effective monitoring of the use of money
in politics," he said.
Also speaking, Muthori Wangai, the Chairman,
Independent Electoral and Boundaries
Commission of Kenya, urged African countries
to invest in institutions that would enhance the
success of the electoral process.
Mr. Wangai said: "as we invest in the
independent commissions, we invest also in the
bodies that affect the electoral process and
one of them is the judiciary and the judicial
system in its entirety.
"It is important for us to think about
improving the capacity to take action when the
electoral system is abused."
Another discussant, Francis Oke, from the
ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Unit, urged
African countries to invest more in the
financing of elections and depend less on funds
from foreign donors.
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election offences tribunal before
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Jega wants establishment of election offences tribunal before 2015 polls
Posted by Oluseyi Olaniyi
Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013
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