2023: INEC Releases Revised Regulations, Guidelines For General Election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has finally released the revised regulations and guidelines for conducting the 2023 general election.

INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, announced this at a meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) on Thursday in Abuja.

At the meeting held to review security arrangements for the Ekiti governorship election, Yakubu said the regulations and guidelines were reviewed to reflect new provisions in the new Electoral Act 2022.

“On several occasions, the Commission has assured Nigerians that we are finalizing the Regulations and Guidelines for the elections. I am glad to announce that the document is ready and will be presented to Nigerians shortly. The soft copy will be uploaded to our website with the link shared on our social media platforms.

“With the release of the Regulations and Guidelines today, and the publication of the Strategic Plan (SP) 2022-2026 and Election Project Plan 2023 earlier, the Commission has virtually concluded the planning processes for the 2023 General Election nine months ahead of the election,” he said.

The INEC Chairman said that the commission’s training manual will also be presented to Nigerians in a couple of weeks, adding that the commission would henceforth “focus on election administration: logistics, training, voter education, technology, sensitization against vote-buying, inclusivity measures and, above all, security. ICCES will continue to play a critical role and the Commission appreciates the support of all security agencies.”

Ekiti Governorship

Yakubu said INEC has successfully undertaken all the major activities that are supposed to be carried out for the smooth conduct of the Ekiti election.

“I led a team of INEC National Commissioners to Ekiti State early this week to assess the Commission’s preparations for the elections. We visited our offices in several Local Government Areas, held meetings with our staff, had audience with the Council of Obas to solicit the support of their Royal Majesties for peaceful elections and met with the security agencies. We also observed the ongoing training of ad hoc staff and the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for mock accreditation of voters in some Polling Units across the three Senatorial Districts of the State. We will again return to Ekiti State shortly to meet with the stakeholders and for the signing of the Peace Accord by political parties and candidates under the auspices of the National Peace Committee.

“As the Commission is getting ready for the Ekiti State Governorship election, we have also gone far with similar preparations for the Osun State Governorship election holding next month i.e. Saturday 16th July 2022. At the same time, the Commission continues with preparations for the 2023 General Election. On this note, let me seize this opportunity to address two critical aspects of our preparations for the forthcoming General Election,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the document uploaded on its website on Friday, INEC provided rules that will guide voters, political parties, and its officials in the 2023 elections, including the collation and declaration of election results for Councilor, Local Government and State Constituency at their respective levels.

It said the presidential election results will be collated and declared at the Local Government, State and Federal levels.