The Changing Face Of INEC?

It is important to ask if the changing face of INEC is a reality or a flash in the pan. Can INEC change? The Anambra election is now a mirror in the sun, judging from the emerging issues there from.
The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has remained an albatross in the neck of the electoral process. Every flawed electoral process is almost always attributed to the failure of INEC to provide the structure, the right environment and logistics for free fair, safe and credible election.
INEC has therefore become an institution that has been subjected to severe scrutiny and in a worst case scenario; it is an institution that has suffered unnecessary manipulations in the hands of ambitious politicians. The entire personnel of INEC, especially the Chairman of the electoral umpire have constantly been vilified. There was therefore the need for rebranding of the agency.
Truly INEC has failed the country in more ways than one.
Recently, the National Assembly had brainstormed on the issue of a viable INEC that should provide credible elections for the country.
The burning issue in their debated efforts was the Electronic Transmission of results.
The initial failure of the legislators to reach a civilized and acceptable consensus on the issue was a talking point in the polity and a vexatious are at that. It was worrisome on why 21st century legislators would equivocate on the issue of electronic transmission. Their endorsement of the use of electronic transmission of results by INEC in a manner that is acceptable to them and in line with the electoral Act is the first sign of the changing face of INEC for good.
It is expected that it would reduce the drudgery and corruption that characterized collation and announcement of credible results by INEC .Nigerians received the news with cheerful ovation. The entire debate however revealed that part of the problem of democracy in Nigeria is the systemic failure of politicians to do the right things in every democratic institution they occupy.
The much talked about electoral reform in Nigeria has become a huge joke as every item is seen from a selfish perspective.
Politicians have always expressed apprehension over certain changes in the Electoral law for fear of creating a system that would stop their diabolic ploy to rig elections. The rule at all cost syndromes has remained a reason why democracy in Nigeria has failed to grow.
However, since the 2015 elections in Nigeria INEC has made efforts to improve on their logistics and other operational details. Whether such efforts have been successful or not has remained a food for thought.
There was no improvement in 2019 presidential elections, Edo State, Ondo State and Bayelsa state elections as well.
These elections did not show any remarkable improvement in accreditation and collation of results, security and final outcome.
INEC in its wisdom has begun to make efforts to improve its operations through minor reforms.
One of such reforms is the much publicized expansion of voter access to polling units.
This move is intended to reduce queues at polling units and minimize time wasting at voting points.
The expansion was planned to reduce the number of persons at every polling unit thereby making it more accessible to voters to improve citizenship participation.
This expansion as exemplified in Anambra election, has resulted to the increased number of polling units. Anambra, thus has 1, 112 new polling units which brought voting to the door steps of many.
This expansion of voter access according election observers aided participation. However, the unfortunate scenarios were the absence of voters at many polling units due to voter apathy as a result of the prevailing political environment. Anambra has never had fifty percent of voter turnout.
Recall that INEC has also introduced online registration of voters.
This is to aid inclusiveness where every citizen who has access to computer can register without much difficulty. It is interesting to note that Local Government Councils made a show of this development by making available computer registration centres to eliminate deliberate disenfranchisement of citizens.
The deployment of a new technology called Biomodal voter Accreditation, which is a replacement of Smart Card Readers is the high point of the visible changing face of INEC operations. The BVAS was first experimented in a constituency Bye Election in Isoko South of Delta State. The apparent successes of the software encouraged INEC to use it at a large scale in the Anambra elections.
The BVA is a voter accreditation technology that uses both finger prints and facial recognition. This technology gives valid credibility to the electoral process. It also reduces the number of instances of voter disenfranchisement due to failure of SCR to scan finger prints. There were however some insignificant number of failures in this technology in the Anambra elections according to Election 0bservers. Some high profile voters according to reports suffered computer glitches in the voting process, but the common incidents of smart card and SCR finger prints scan failure rates in previous elections, were minimal in Anambra State elections.
The implication is that INEC has the capacity to improve on this technology in 2023 General Elections. Security has always been a problem in Nigerian Electoral process, which has made safe election a huge challenge. Anambra election like most isolated election processes in states is one of the most policed elections in recent history. There were 34, 587 personnel mobilized to police 2.5 million voters including DIGS, AIGS, COPS, DCOP, ACOP.In 2023 this number will not be feasible in any state. It is therefore important to prepare for 2023 with a smarter security Architecture.

By: Bon Woke