2015: Soldiers will be barred from polling units, says Jega

Attahiru Jega, chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said that soldiers will not be at polling units during the 2015 general elections.

The issue of having soldiers around during elections has generated much tension in the country.

Jega on Monday declared that the level of involvement of the military in the rescheduled March 28 and April 11, 2015 general elections must be in total compliance with the provisions of the 1999 constitution.

He was fielding questions in Abuja during a town hall meeting jointly organised by Channels Television, The Ford Foundation, The Cooker Centre and Beat FM for the commission to respond to salient issues around complaints ranging from non-collection of permanent voter cards (PVCs), the workability of the card readers and chances of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the North East to exercise their franchise.

He said the military would not be used outside troubled areas, adding that soldiers were not supposed to be at the polling units unless they were invited by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) following a breakdown of law and order.

“As many Nigerians are, no doubt, aware since 2010, we have created the inter-agencies committee on elections security, which has helped us to coordinate our activities as an election management body so that the electoral process is secured. They provide security for electoral officers and electoral materials, as well as, provide security for the voters who will come out to exercise their franchise.

“Using this framework, we feel satisfied that all the security agencies have been working together, coordinating activities to ensure a peaceful conduct of the election. The role of the military, in particular, is as defined in the constitution which is: to provide support to civil authority when there is a breakdown of law and order. Since 2011, the military, in our conceptualisation in terms of the practical roles they have played in the elections, was confined to this constitutional responsibility,” Jega said.

According to him, “If there is a breakdown of law and order, which the police are unable to contain, the military will be rapidly deployed to ensure peace. We have never had the military at the polling units. We have always had on average, three unarmed policemen at the polling units, and 300 metres away from the polling units, as the Electoral Act provides. We have armed policemen on patrol.”

Assuring Nigerians of the commission’s readiness for the 2015 elections, he said INEC had taken approximately four years to prepare and had done everything humanly possible to ensure free, fair, credible, peaceful and remarkable elections that would be better than that of 2011.

“We are adequately prepared to deliver free, fair and credible elections and we are sure the elections will be better than that of 2011,” he averred.

On the call for his resignation by some groups, Jega emphasised that there was no reason for him to resign, adding that he was more focused on conducting free and fair elections than worrying about resigning.

“Nobody has told me I’m being removed. I am not under pressure to resign. I am focused on delivering free and fair elections, and I have no reason to resign,” he said.

On the use of card readers, Jega expressed optimism that they would add tremendous value to the electoral process, adding that he was confident that no cloned card would be used.

“If we do not use the card readers, we will lose in many fundamental respects and the accreditation of registered voters will be prone to alterations,” he said.

Jega also disclosed that 56 million registered voters out of 68 million had collected their permanent voter cards (PVCs), lamenting the refusal of some registered voters to collect theirs.

“In Ekiti State, where we had election last year, PVC collection rate was barely 65 percent. As we speak, collection has not gone up by 5 percent so what is the explanation for the percentage not collected? If you say that PVC collection must reach a certain percentage, then you will never fix a date for election,” he explained.

While responding to question on internally displaced persons (IDPs), the chairman admitted that it would be difficult for voting to occur in places where IDPs have not returned home.

“It is practically impossible for INEC to do that, but we are working hard to ensure that they can vote at their IDP camps, which is why arrangements were made to distribute PVCs to them at the camps.”

He explained that only 20 percent of IDPs are in camps, while others are living in host communities in the troubled North Eastern states.

“But once IDPs are out of their states, it is impossible for us to organise elections for them and transfer their results to their states. It is not as if we cannot make that happen, but given the time and resource constraint that we have, it will not be possible to do it,” Jega concluded.

KEHINDE ABDULSALAM & NATHANIEL AKHIGBE