INEC Warns Politicians: Stop Painting Our Staff With Brush Of Partisanship

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cautioned politicians and political parties in the country against branding members of its staff as election riggers in a bid to score “cheap political points”.

INEC issued the warning on Monday in a statement by its National Commissioner and Chairman for Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

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The electoral body noted that it conducted elections for 1,558 positions in the 2019 elections, after which a number of allegations of partisanship was labelled against its senior staff.

Okoye said a total of 807 post-election petitions were filed by aggrieved politicians and parties, out of which 582 were dismissed, 183 withdrawn by the petitioners and only 30 petitions, representing less than 2%, resulted in rerun elections on the orders of election tribunals or the courts.

INEC said its staff “risked their lives, performed under delicate conditions and engaged in electoral operations aimed at protecting the integrity of the process and ensuring credible outcomes.

“The Commission’s code of conduct ensures that all our staff remain non-partisan in the discharge of their official duties. This is the only way they can maintain the delicate balance between all the contending political parties and candidates in the political process.

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“It is therefore unhelpful and counterproductive to profile senior staff of the Commission operating in any part of the country and paint them with the brush of partisanship just to score political points.”

The electoral umpire further said it would, “resist the invitation to be drawn into the debate on the propriety, correctness or otherwise of the decisions of the various Election Petitions Tribunals and the Courts as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) have clearly and comprehensively delineated the powers and areas of jurisdiction of various institutions of our democracy. Decisions of courts and tribunal are final and the rule of law dictates that all authorities and persons give effect to them.”

It said it will rather focus on its efforts to “bring about necessary reforms to give Nigerians comprehensive and robust electoral framework that will take care of perceived and identified flaws and lacunae in the electoral process.”

INEC urged politicians in the country develop democratic spirit and assist it to continue to conduct free and transparent elections.

It also assured Nigerians that it will remain focused and determined to “continue with improvements in the electoral process and solidify the sovereign right of the Nigerian people to freely choose their representatives.”

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