Nigeria’s INEC has declared that although the rejected bill would have addressed controversies that trailed the 2015 exercise especially the place of technology and others that the amendments seek to address, Nigeria can still have good elections with the extant Act.
Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, addressed reporters on the issue in Abuja yesterday. He explained that the Electoral Act 2010 as amended in 2015 would be the operative law.
He said, “While it may be better to have the necessary amendments to avoid some of the controversies that trailed the 2015 exercise, especially the place of technology and others the amendments seek to cure, we can still have good elections with the extant act as we did in 2015, which were adjudged free, fair and credible.”
On claims that 13.5 million voters voted for Buhari without full biometric accreditation in 2015, INEC added, “How was this determined? Biometric accreditation does not determine who a person votes for. Put another way, the card reader is used for biometric accreditation. It doesn’t determine how such persons vote.”