By Afolabi Samuel Odunayo
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed its capability to conduct local government elections if granted the responsibility. By asserting so, many believe the INEC was merely blowing its own troubled trumpet.
INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made this statement on Thursday during a joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters session, while discussing preparations for the upcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States.
Yakubu asserted that while INEC has the capacity to manage local government elections, stressing that “this can only be implemented if the law is amended to permit it.”
The INEC boss further highlighted what he claimed as “INEC’s successful management of area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which have been free of the issues typically associated with state-run local government elections.”
Yakubu outlined several benefits of INEC overseeing local government elections, such as ensuring regular elections, maintaining stability of tenure, and eliminating the use of caretaker committees, which have not been a feature in the FCT.
He also noted that in the FCT, no single political party has ever won all the seats, unlike the state-level local government elections.
He concluded that if INEC is enabled to handle the local government elections, there would be many advantages. He listed them to include building of democracy and the rule of law. He also maintained that to enable the electoral body conduct council polls, the National Assembly has to undertake a constitutional amendment to transfer the responsibility from state electoral commissions to INEC.
