INEC is not partisan, says national commissioner
The Independent National Electoral Commission says it is wrong to accuse it of partisanship or of being an appendage of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The commission stated this in a publication made available to newsmen by Mohammed Haruna, INEC National Commissioner and member of Information, Voter Education and Publicity Committee, on Friday in Abuja.
Haruna in the publication titled: “INEC in The Last Three Years” said that since INEC’s last governorship election in Osun on Sep. 22, the entire commission had come under attack from several quarters, including media organisations, as being deficient.
He said that since 2015, INEC had conducted about 195 odd elections, including seven off-season governorship elections, a dozen senatorial and two dozen federal constituency elections and scores of State Assembly and Federal Capital Territory Area Council (FCT) elections.
He added that out of these 195 odd elections only a handful had been successfully challenged in courts and in none of them did the courts order wholesale re-runs.
“Even more importantly, in a large number of the elections, notably the Ondo governorship election in which all contestants were senior lawyers, there were no litigations at all.
“Most important of all, victories at the polls have been shared across all the major parties including the ruling APC and opposition PDP and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).’’
Harruna said that it may be argued that an election management body like a newspaper was as good as its last outing and the Osun State governorship election, as INEC’s last major outing before next year’s general election, was not perfect.
He said that certainly, it was not as good as, say, those of Ondo and Anambra states.
“Even then, no fair-minded critic of the Commission would accuse it of being tardy, or worse still, of being an appendage of the ruling APC.
“Were it so, it would not have had the courage to announce, as it did in early October, that APC had no candidate, save that of the Presidency, for all the elective offices in Zamfara State, because the party had failed to conduct proper primaries for its candidates for those offices by the commission’s deadline of Oct.7.
“The Commission would also not have had the courage earlier to have conducted a free, fair and credible impeachment process against Senator Dino Melaye in Kogi East which failed woefully in spite of the notorious fact that the Senator had become a painful thorn in APC’s flesh.’’
The commission stated this in a publication made available to newsmen by Mohammed Haruna, INEC National Commissioner and member of Information, Voter Education and Publicity Committee, on Friday in Abuja.
Haruna in the publication titled: “INEC in The Last Three Years” said that since INEC’s last governorship election in Osun on Sep. 22, the entire commission had come under attack from several quarters, including media organisations, as being deficient.
He said that since 2015, INEC had conducted about 195 odd elections, including seven off-season governorship elections, a dozen senatorial and two dozen federal constituency elections and scores of State Assembly and Federal Capital Territory Area Council (FCT) elections.
He added that out of these 195 odd elections only a handful had been successfully challenged in courts and in none of them did the courts order wholesale re-runs.
“Even more importantly, in a large number of the elections, notably the Ondo governorship election in which all contestants were senior lawyers, there were no litigations at all.
“Most important of all, victories at the polls have been shared across all the major parties including the ruling APC and opposition PDP and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).’’
Harruna said that it may be argued that an election management body like a newspaper was as good as its last outing and the Osun State governorship election, as INEC’s last major outing before next year’s general election, was not perfect.
He said that certainly, it was not as good as, say, those of Ondo and Anambra states.
“Even then, no fair-minded critic of the Commission would accuse it of being tardy, or worse still, of being an appendage of the ruling APC.
“Were it so, it would not have had the courage to announce, as it did in early October, that APC had no candidate, save that of the Presidency, for all the elective offices in Zamfara State, because the party had failed to conduct proper primaries for its candidates for those offices by the commission’s deadline of Oct.7.
“The Commission would also not have had the courage earlier to have conducted a free, fair and credible impeachment process against Senator Dino Melaye in Kogi East which failed woefully in spite of the notorious fact that the Senator had become a painful thorn in APC’s flesh.’’
