The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, has emphasized the need for Civil Society Organizations to extend their scrutiny to the activities of political parties and State Independent Electoral Commissions to deepen democracy and enhance the conduct of elections.
Yakubu acknowledged that INEC faces challenges when other actors fail to play by the rules or are not in sync.
He commended the contributions of the civil society community to the improvement of the democratic process and conduct of elections but noted that more needs to be done to get other stakeholders committed to deepening democracy, according to TheSun.
The INEC Chairman highlighted the importance of credible party primaries, emphasizing that flawed primary elections have a direct negative impact on the entire electoral process.
He also wondered why the civil society appears unperturbed by the conduct of local government elections by the SIECs.
Yakubu’s remarks were made during a visit by a coalition of CSOs, led by Mr. Yinusa Z Ya’u, who shared a common interest with INEC in consolidating democracy and the conduct of elections.
The coalition has been mobilizing citizens for PVC collection and engaging in campaigns for peaceful polls in Edo state, while also imploring political parties to play by the rules.
“No matter what INEC does, if other actors are not ready to play by the rules or in sync, we will continue to face challenges,” he quipped:
The electoral umpire boss also highlighted some of the areas where adjustments by stakeholders in the electoral process are necessary, stressing that; “the civil society has been instrumental to the positive changes we are seeing.”
“Remember, most of the improvements that you see in the conduct of elections are as a result of the activism of the civil society. But sometimes, the civil society is quiet about other (types of) elections,” he noted.
Speaking further, the INEC Chairman underscored the importance of credible party primaries, emphasising that flawed primary elections have direct negative impact on the entire electoral process since the public would have no choice than to pick from the various candidates that emerged from such primaries.
“Take the conduct of party primaries for instance. Political parties conduct primary elections (and) INEC conducts secondary elections. So, the most important process is actually the primaries conducted by political parties. It is the candidates they present that we put on the ballot. Citizens can only choose from the candidates presented by political parties,” he argued.
Yakubu also wondered why the civil society appears unperturbed by the conduct of local government elections by the SIECs, noting: “Elections are conducted at the local government level by the SIECs and they declare all the candidates of the ruling party winners.
“Yet, we don’t hear anything from the civil society. At INEC, we appreciate constructive criticisms. It is an ingredient for change. But we want all the components of elections to be alright. We cannot have one component going right and another going the other way,” he said.
