INEC faults Alegeh on inconclusive elections
(Nigeria) Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has described the remarks of outgoing President of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr Augustine Alegeh, on inconclusive elections as "misplaced and undeserved."
In a statement by the acting
Secretary to INEC, Mr Musa Adamu, in Abuja, on Wednesday, the commission said that its attention had been drawn to a
statement credited to Alegeh in which he rebuked it for conducting 136
inconclusive elections in one year under the watch of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
It quoted Alegeh making such remark at the 56th Annual
General Conference of the NBA in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on August 21.
It acknowledged that Alegeh was ``highly knowledgeable and
respected’’ but stated that his statement at the 56th Annual General Conference
of NBA in Port Harcourt on Sunday was unfortunate and grossly incorrect.
According to INEC, 163 elections comprising 80 court-ordered
elections in the aftermath of 2015 general elections, 70 end-of-tenure
elections, 13 by-elections occasioned by death or resignation, have so far been
conducted by the new commission.
It stated that out of the 163 conducted elections, 118 were
concluded at first ballot and 21 concluded after supplementary.
It added that two cases were pending, while 22 suspended
re-run elections in Rivers due to violence were to be concluded.
``This shows that 72.3 per cent of the elections were
concluded at first ballot, 21.8 per cent of inconclusive elections were
concluded after supplementary, 1.2 per cent pending, while 13.4 per cent were
suspended in Rivers State.
``It is clear from the foregoing that Mr Alegeh‘s
pronouncement was ill-informed and his stern rebuke to the commission was
misplaced and undeserved,’’ the statement said.
It said that the commission had maintained that inconclusive
elections were caused by violence and over-voting, and that the notion of
inconclusive election was not strange to the laws.
According to it, the conditions for declaring an election
inconclusive are stated in Sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act 2010, as
amended.
``The commission remains unwavering and irrevocably
committed to delivering elections that are free, fair and credible and to
ensure that the vote of every eligible Nigerian counts,’’ it said.
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