2015: We are ready for free, fair elections —INEC Chairman

AHEAD the 2015 general election, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, on Tuesday, reassured the nation and the international community that the commission is set to conduct free, fair and credible elections which would be acceptable to all and sundry. Professor Jega gave the assurance while receiving the United States (US) Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Sarah, who paid him a visit in Abuja. The INEC boss pointed out that the commission was prepared technically and personnel wise to conduct credible polls in the country in 2015. He said with all the reforms and innovation being introduced into the system by the commission, he was optimistic that the forthcoming 2015 election would be better organised, when compared with what happened in 2011, saying, “we are optimistic that
technically, INEC will organise a better, fairer and acceptable general election 2015.” According to him, “we have learnt from our past logistic challenges and we will ensure that they don’t affect us in subsequent elections.” He said in order to achieve the set goal, the commission had continued to engage all the stakeholders in the country’s democratic process, as part of the efforts to ensure better and acceptable elections in 2015. He promised that in the next three month, the commission would have been done with permanent voter cards (PVCs) distribution nationwide. Professor Jega commended US and other development partners for assisting the commission in turning the corner in electioneering process, saying such gesture had been invaluable to the success recorded so far. This came as he explained why the card reader machines would not be deployed to polling booths in the Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections. He said the interest generated by both elections would not allow it to be used for the pilot scheme, so as to avoid mistakes, but assured that the machines would be massively deployed for the 2015 elections to eliminate multiple voting. Speaking earlier, US Under Secretary said her country was looking forward to the next general election in Nigeria and commended the electoral body for the transformation it had carried out in the electioneering process ahead of the elections.