The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed concern over delay in the enactment of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
This comes as the Commission has said certain states have been marked down as being prone to hate speech as the 2019 general election draws close.
INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, stated this Wednesday at a quarterly dialogue session with Situation Room – a coalition of over 70 civil society organizations – in Abuja.
The INEC boss also disclosed that in line with the Electoral Act which states that 60 days into a new year, the commission must avail political parties with voters register of the previous year, the Commission has complied with the provision.
It revealed that political parties received the national voters register for 2017 two weeks ago.
Represented by a National Commissioner in the Commission, Okechukwu Ibeanu, Yakubu pointed out that vacancies in Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) positions across the country, have reduced from 29 to three.
According to him, about 4 million additional new registers have been added in the continuous voters registration exercise.
“The threat of electoral violence remains real in several parts of the country. Certain states are already been flagged in the commission and we are watching those states carefully. At some point, we will make public some of the analysis that had been going on within the commission about the states. I won’t mention them but I am sure they are relatively known.
“Liberal elections are about the individual citizen and how he makes his choice about who governs. But when people begin to make negative mobilisation that casts aspersions on ethnic, religious groups, then we have crossed a very dangerous line,” he said.
On his part, the Convener of Situation Room, Clement Nwankwo, expressed concern that with less than a year to the 2019 election, the legal framework is yet to be in place, even as he faulted the restraining order of a Federal High Court, against the National Assembly from taking further action on the Electoral Act, which President Muhammadu Buhari withheld assent.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
