Rep Ezenwa Onyewuchi (PDP-Imo) has suggested proper planning on election conduct by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the only solution to end the issues of supplementary election practice in the country.
Onyewuchi, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity, made the suggestion on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) in Abuja.
The lawmakeer also suggested that amending the Electoral Act will address some of those issues leading to rerun eletions in the country.
NAN reports that some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) had expressed concern over the March 23 rerun elections in some states, saying “it appears that the process is now a manipulation tool to circumvent the elections.”
The CSOs, however, called on INEC to put an end to the practice of conducting supplementary elections before a winner is determined in the country.
The lawmaker said, “It is for INEC to plan well; put the right machinery in place, put qualified staff on the field and at the end of the day, it will get credible results.”
He said with this, the issue of supplementary elections would be drastically reduced.
“I don’t know if you can eradicate some of the issues that come up during elections, but they can be reduced to barest if they have staff who are properly trained,” he added.
The legislator, who represents Owerri Municipal/North/West Federal Constituency, attributed some of the problems leading to rerun polls in the 2019 general elections to inadequate staff training.
“The problem with the last elections was that most of the workers were not properly trained.
“They made a lot of mistakes, they muddled up materials and that posed a lot of problems. So, training is the key,” he said.
The legislator said effort must be made by all stakeholders to get rid of supplementary elections.
“For me, some of the places where elections were declared inconclusive were not supposed to be declared.
Onyewuchi, who described the act as a “mischief tool,” said the practice should be discouraged.
He said that to have credible elections in the country, the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill must be revisited.
“The Electoral Act will address some of those issues. Anybody that wants credible elections in Nigeria would support the amended Electoral Bill,” he said.
The lawmaker, however, assured Nigerians that the bill would be retransmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.
“It is clear to everybody that the only thing that would give us free, fair, transparent and credible elections in Nigeria is for the electoral bill to be signed,” he said.
