By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
As the 2027 general election draws nearer, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has appealed to the National Assembly for an expeditious consideration of the electoral reform proposal.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu made the appeal on Thursday when he met with the European Union (EU) Election Observation Follow-Up Mission to Nigeria at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
Prof Yakubu pointed out that an early passage of law is critical to INEC’s
planning for the elections.
The uncertainty over the legal framework for the election, according to him, can unsettle the work of the Commission as election draws nearer.
In the words of the INEC Chairman, “As you are aware, election is a process governed by law. Many of your recommendations require the review of our electoral laws.
Prof Yakubu told members of the EU that INEC has carefully considered all the 8 recommendations specifically addressed to it in the report of the delegation.
He explained that action has been taken on aspects of the recommendations that only require administrative action to implement, stressing that action is similarly being taken on cross-cutting recommendations that require collective action between INEC and other bodies and stakeholders, while waiting for the conclusion of the ongoing legal review by the National Assembly on the recommendations that require legislative intervention.
According to him, “For this reason, the Commission had interfaced with our National Assembly, including a retreat with the Joint Committee on Electoral Matters (Senate and House of Representatives).
“We appeal to the National Assembly for an expeditious consideration of the electoral reform proposal.
“I must also add that your (EU-delegation’s) recommendations, along with similar reports from other national and international election observers, were the subject of wide-ranging consultations with critical institutions and stakeholders during our own review of the 2023 General Election.
“The review report contains 142 recommendations for electoral reform. In addition, the Commission has published our main 2023 General Election report over a year ago.
The two reports are available from our website.
“As you are aware, election is a process governed by law. Many of your recommendations require the review of our electoral laws.
“To this end, the Commission has prepared a detailed response on each one of your direct observations which we shared with you at this meeting. If time permits, we can go over each of the recommendations”, he said.
In his remarks, the EU/EOM Chief Observe, Andrews, said they were at the commission to know how far the commission had implemented the commission’s recommendations on the 2023 general election.
Andrews said that the mission wanted to know the progress made so far, what concerns and obstacles in the future, particularly around constitutional change.
According to him, “So what we are here to do is to look at the recommendations that flowed from the overall mission, that were contained in the final report of the mission back in 2023.
“We are very happy to see that there has been very significant progress against these recommendations.
“We recognise that there are certain time constraints, both in terms of judicial reform as well as administrative reform.
“Of course, constitutional reform, which is somewhat more difficult, but we are making all of these recommendations against international standards that the EU, that Nigeria, that most countries, have signed up to.
“So we are part of an overall international election observation ecosystem that has really served to buttress democracy, to support democracy, not just here in Nigeria, not just in Africa, but across the world and in Europe as well,” he said.
Noting some off cycle governorship elections had been conducted after 2023 general election, Andrews said that the mission wanted to know changes that were applied for those elections, especially measures to improve transparency on publication of results, which was part of the mission’s recommendations
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