Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee, INEC, says it has commenced preparations for the conduct of by-elections to fill the vacant seats within the Nationwide and State Assemblies.
Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in an interview with the Information Company of Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja, stated that the fee would quickly launch extra particulars concerning the by-elections.
“We have now commenced preparations for the conduct of the by-elections. At our conferences with leaders of political events and safety businesses not too long ago, we notified them of our preparations.
“The present nationwide and state assemblies had been inaugurated in June 2023.
“Between June and December 2023, a interval of simply six months, vacancies occurred in 23 constituencies on account of dying or resignation of legislators.
“In early 2024, the fee performed 9 by-elections. Since then, 16 different vacancies have occurred,’’ he stated.
Oyekanmi stated that the problem with by-elections was that they had been unpredictable, not budgetted for and in addition troublesome to plan for upfront.
This, he stated, was why INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, appealed to the nationwide meeting not too long ago to contemplate different viable alternate options to by-elections for filling vacancies within the nationwide and state assemblies.
Oyekanmi stated that the decision was aimed toward mitigating the excessive value of conducting by-elections within the nation.
He additionally stated that INEC was engaged on resuming its nationwide steady voter registration, CVR, and assortment of everlasting voter playing cards, PVCs.
“The resumption of CVR is high on the fee’s agenda. It is just a matter of time earlier than the fee publicizes the date,’’ he stated.NAN
