THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should improve on its logistics preparedness and internal communication mechanisms to avoid postponement of elections in the future, participants at a post-2019 election roundtable, have said.

Political parties, they advised, should improve on the credibility of their intra-party democracy and “refrain from giving automatic tickets to candidates against the will of their party members.”

According to them, the Federal Government should prioritise the domestication of democracy in Nigeria by strengthening democratic institutions and their operational independence.

The participants made the recommendations in a communique issued during the discussion to review the conduct of the 2019 general elections, organised by The Kukah Centre for Faith, Leadership and Public Policy Research (also known as The Kukah Centre), with the theme: Finding a place for Nigeria’s elections spillovers.”

The communique which was signed by the Director of Kukah Centre, Dr. Barkindo Atta, a Reverend Fr, was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Friday.

The communique reads: “INEC should improve on its logistics preparedness and internal communication mechanisms as these are crucial to precluding the postponement of elections during the future polls. It needs to increase the knowledge of the Nigerian public on its operations through continuous dialogues and engagements beyond the electoral season.

“INEC needs to improve on its preparedness for elections especially in terms of logistics to curb voter apathy. This is based on the need to encourage effective grassroots participation during future national and states elections. From the outcome of the 2019 elections, it was observed that there is an emerging need to create censoring mechanisms for the process of cancellation of invalid votes.

“The incumbent (President Muhammadu Buhari) needs to prioritise the importance of institutional strengthening for effective governance, while also ensuring the protection of independence of the different arms of government in putting effective checks and balances in place during the electoral process.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria must be commended for its efforts in the difficult task of organizing the elections. However, it is important that it prioritises the domestication of democracy in the country. This should be done through strengthening democratic institutions and their operational independence as required by the Nigerian context. – Punch

– Mar. 29, 2019 @ 12:15 GMT |