The All Progressives Congress, APC, Directorate of Election Planning and Monitoring, has said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC must be open and transparent in its dealings ahead of the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Director of the Directorate and Minister of Power, Works and Housing stated this at a news conference in Abuja on Sunday, in reaction to the postponement of the elections by INEC.
Recall that INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had announced the postponement of the a few hours to commencement of the presidential and National Assembly elections.
He informed that the Presidential and National Assembly elections earlier scheduled for February 16 had been shifted to February 23, while the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections originally fixed for March 2 would now hold on March 9.
Yakubu cited “logistics’’ challenges as reason for the postponement.
Addressing the press, however, Fashola noted that the electoral body must keep Nigerians abreast on preparations for the rescheduled elections.
“As a result of the common pain shared by us all, we demand greater openness and transparency in the Commission’s preparations ahead of Saturday 23rd February 2019 elections.
“We believe that members of the public should know what steps INEC have taken with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to assess, take inventory of materials and what their conditions are,” he said.
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According to him, the commission should make certain information available to Nigerians. These include; if all materials required for the elections were in the country and if not what plans it had to ensure that they were on ground; measures taken to ensure the problems that led to the postponement do not repeat themselves; whether the configuration of its card readers would be completed in readiness for the rescheduled elections and its plans to redeploy and distribute materials ahead of elections.
Fashola further demanded that INEC should let Nigerians know what transport logistics and further materials it required in terms of vehicles, boats, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, manpower and funding to execute the elections.
“In addition to all of these, we believe that INEC should brief Nigerians daily on an ongoing basis until this process is concluded.
“This is one way to elicit the buy-in of Nigerians that INEC is serious and this will replace disappointment with enthusiasm.
“INEC has the duty to now make its processes open, believable and inspiring. This is the road to free and fair elections which is a victory for Nigeria and not for any party,” he said.
He empathised with the stranded youth corpers, voters and volunteers who had travelled at great cost to cast their votes.