Nigeria Content Online

The Independent
National Electoral Commission has announced that an undisclosed number
of key officials will be redeployed before elections, as political
parties mounted calls for the transfer of resident electoral
commissioners, repeatedly blamed for past electoral malpractices.

Attahiru Jega, the
chairman of the commission was literally pressed by many political
parties yesterday to give a definitive position on the matter which the
commission has evaded in the past. He said “necessary redeployments”
will be made before polls, a veiled remark believed to be a reference
to the resident electoral commissioners and the electoral officers at
the states and local government levels respectively, who have come
under fire for allegedly being the main force behind Nigeria’s past
woeful elections.

“We have serious
allegations,” he said. “We will do necessary redeployments before
elections. But we must do it in a way that will not be disruptive but
will restore public confidence.” Mr Jega’s comment came after political
parties, at a meeting yesterday, insisted that the officers be moved
from their current stations. “These are the people who don’t release
enough materials for a particular area and these are the same people
who release materials more than what is needed at a particular area,”
said Chudi Chukwuani, the chairman of the National Democratic Party.

Discretionary powers

Even with the new
measures taken by the commission ahead of the elections next week, many
of the parties say there were still discretions allowed the key
officials which could be easily abused. An example is the ballot
papers, which despite being customized to each voting center, will have
excess copies sent to the resident electoral commissioners and the
electoral officers. One fear was that such supplements are often sent
to specific areas, where they might be in excess and might lead to
multiple voting and ballot box stuffing. “The RECs and the Eos, you
have to do something about them,” said Victor Umeh, the chairman of the
All Progressive Grand Alliance.

Mr Jega said
initially that the comments may be mere allegations and that the
commission can only act where there are evidences. “The commission is
doing everything possible for the RECs to do their jobs without
partiality or partisanship,” he said. “We will deal with it on case by
case basis if there are evidences. Where it becomes necessary for us to
move the EOs or the RECs, we are very committed to doing that.”

But faced with several concerns on the redeployments, the chairman
said the officials will be moved were necessary before elections,
confirming speculations the transfers may be suspended for the final
days before elections.