Review Of Electoral Act Will Improve INEC Processes – Amina Bala Zakari

Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),

Amina Bala Zakari has stressed the need for a review of the Electoral Act

2010 (as amended) with a view to addressing lacunas and improving on the

processes of the Commission.
She said this Monday when a delegation of Military Attachés of accredited

foreign missions in Nigeria, led by the Assistant Director, Attaché

Management Defense Intelligence Agency, Colonel Everest Ifeanyi Okoro,

paid a courtesy visit to the Commission.
The Acting Chairman explained: “We need some review on the Electoral Act

because during the course of our assignment we noticed some lapses and

lacunas in some of the clauses. We are working with the National Assembly

and have recommended certain reviews. We also remind the current National

Assembly on the need to look at these aspects of the Electoral Act so that

we can improve our processes and also improve on elections”.

While explaining the composition and functions of the Commission to the

Military Attaches, the INEC Chairman highlighted some of the challenges

encountered in the course of delivering the 2011 and 2015 General

Elections.
Some of the challenges highlighted by the INEC Chairman include:  lack of

internal party democracy, though she said there have been improvements but

observed that there was room for improvement; challenges in the control

and monitoring of party finance and expenditures. She explained, however,

that the Commission had been building capacity internally and had

commenced a pilot model monitoring of campaign finances.

Others challenges are: election-related violence, which she further

explained that the deployment of Election Risk Management Tool, with the

support of the African Union and International-IDEA which had assisted to

map out risks ahead of the elections and deploy security appropriately,

with the constitution of the Inter Agency Committee on Election Security

(ICCES).
Mrs Amina Bala Zakari noted that reaching out to the public was daunting

due to the vast expanse of the country. She explained, however, that: “We

have been improving through the implementation of our communication

strategy which was evident in the 2015 elections.”
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Colonel Everest Ifeanyi Okoro, had

congratulated the Commission for the successes recorded in the 2015

General Elections. He said: “considering the very important role that your

Commission plays in our nation building, particularly in building blocks

of democracy, our agency has considered it very important to organize this

trip for our Defense Foreign Mission Attachés and Advisers”.

He added that: “the agency has decided to conduct this visit to the

Commission to avail our members of foreign Attachés and Advisers the

opportunity to have in-depth insight of the workings of the Commission”.

The delegation was given a facility tour of the Commission by directing

staff of the Commission.
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