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The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has described the planned general election as
“unrealistic” going by the timetable released on Tuesday by the
electoral body.

The party also
described the plan which shows that staggered elections will hold in
January as a “recipe for failure.” In a statement issued in Abuja by
its National Publicity Secretary, the ACN warned that “in order for the
country not to repeat its history of electoral woes, and to prevent the
billions of naira to be spent on the elections from going down the
drain, the National Assembly must show uncommon patriotism by
suspending the operation of the amended constitution until after the
2011 elections, so that INEC can conduct the elections in April.”

According to the
party, this problem was caused by the series of setbacks the
constitution amendment witnessed as planned by the National Assembly.
“The problem of impossible timelines which the elections face now was
not created by INEC, but by the choreographed delayed amendment of the
constitution by the National Assembly.

“By releasing the
timetable, therefore, INEC has simply demonstrated its readiness to
comply with both the provisions of the new Electoral Act and the
amended Constitution,” it said.

The ACN claims that
it’s investigation has revealed that INEC is yet to award the contract
for the procurement of the 120,000 DDC needed for the fresh voter
registration.

In a breakdown of
the available time, the party further explained that it will take a
minimum of 10 weeks from the date of award for the machines to arrive
in Nigeria, and a minimum of three weeks is required to complete
voters’ registration and the display the new register for claims and
objections. Another eight weeks or at least 45 days will be needed to
integrate the data from the over 120,000 polling units before INEC can
commence printing of new voters cards. ACN, therefore, notes that INEC
cannot have the new voters’ register ready 21 weeks from today, “even
if the contract for the procurement of the 120,000 DDC machines were to
be awarded today.” By this permutation, ACN states that INEC will not
be ready for the election until “the first or second week in February
2011.” “This is already way past the month of January for which the
elections have been scheduled,” the party said.

Don’t blame INEC

The party stated
that the blame must be “laid squarely on the doorsteps of the National
Assembly,” for wasting so much time before the new Electoral Act and
the amended constitution were enacted into law. It also raised concerns
on the possible illegality of the constitution amendment, as the
process is being challenged by the presidency at the Supreme Court.

Calling for more
time for the electoral body, ACN stated that “there is nothing
sacrosanct about elections in January 2011” as “all election petitions
can be disposed off between January and May 2011” if the polls were to
hold in January. The party, therefore, demanded “unequivocally” that
INEC be given adequate time to do a thorough job.

“The 2011 elections are critical to the survival of our democracy
and the realisation of the consistent pledge by President Goodluck
Jonathan to organise free, fair and credible polls. We cannot afford to
fail,” the party concluded.