Prof Jega answering questions from The Nation editors in Lagos ... yesterday PHOTOS: ABIODUN WILLIAMS Nigerians may vote electronically in the 2015 general elections, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega said yesterday.
This, he said, will depend on the amendment of electoral laws, which presently do not recognise electronic voting.
Jega said contracts are being awarded for the production of a permanent voter register, which will be embedded in electronic chips on cards.
The INEC boss admitted that the commission has not performed satisfactorily in the prosecution of electoral offenders, even though over 200 cases have been tried.
To him, the solution is to have an independent body outside INEC to handle prosecution of electoral offenders while the commission concentrates on election management.
Jega spoke during a visit to The Nation’s head office in Lagos. He was received by the management team, led by Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief Victor Ifijeh.
On the use of technology in voting, Jega said: “We are working to ensure that if by 2015, the legal framework is amended to allow for electronic voting, we may be able to see it through, provided the funding and facilities are available to get electronic voting machines.
“We have gone very far with the award of the contract for the permanent voters register. It is going to be in embedded chip contact lens cards. Each card will carry all the information about the voter, with all his biometric data, from fingerprint to photograph and so on.
“Our hope is that in 2015, at the minimum, we are going to have an authentic verification of anybody who presents himself or herself at the polling unit for voting. We will have card readers, and it will automatically verify whether you are the genuine owner of a card.
“If the law is amended in good time and we’re able to have the resources and to convince the public that we can do electronic voting, then we will also be ready because the chip-based card can be made compatible with an electronic voting system.
“Also, we have been working very hard to integrate our database. We are doing it in stages.”
The popular thinking is that electoral crimes flourish because many offenders are not prosecuted.
Jega attributed INEC’s inability to effectively prosecute electoral crimes to lack of evidence, court delays and high cost of litigation.
His words: “Frankly, if there is anything we have not done to our satisfaction, to my personal satisfaction, and to the commission’s satisfaction, it is the prosecution of electoral offenders. But it is not for lack of trying.
“To have successful investigation, you need successful police investigation and report and you must have the courts to take the cases seriously.
“But there are cases in court since April that are still there. The courts are not hastening the process. There are cases where the police said they have no evidence of illegality taking place.
“I am not shifting blame, but there is a limit to what we can do, if we do not have the support of all the other partners in driving prosecution.
“However, until this INEC came in, I don’t think anyone could point to one case of prosecution of an electoral offender from 1999. From 1999 to 2010, no electoral commission had prosecuted a single electoral offender. But we have prosecuted more than 200.”
He spoke on the long-term solution: “For me, after being on Uwais Panel and now chairman of INEC, the easiest thing to do under the circumstances is really to take that matter of litigation out of the hands of INEC.
“Let us concentrate, as an election management body, on managing elections; and let there be an independent Election Offences Tribunal to handle the prosecution of electoral offenders. We’ll provide all the evidence and they will have their own prosecutors and investigators just as EFCC and ICPC do.”
According to Jega, elections are still being rigged, and it will take time to end the culture.
“Yes, elections have been rigged, but wherever they are rigged and we have the evidence, we have cancelled them.
“Where we don’t have the evidence, we expect that those contestants who are on the field should take the extra effort not just to win the election, but to have the evidence of rigging and so on so that they can prove their cases in court.
“If you say election has been rigged, you should have the evidence to prove that it has been rigged. Whoever has evidence and needed our support, we have always provided that support.”
Jega defended INEC’s decisions following the Supreme Court judgment which sacked five governors, saying they were based on sound legal advice and were expedient.
He said if INEC had stuck with the old time-table for election in the affected states, it could be accused of disobeying the Supreme Court verdict.
“Our position is that we have to be proactive and interpret decisions. If people disagree with the position, then they can go to court and get another interpretation.
“But we can’t sit back and say ‘we can’t interpret this because it is not our job to interpret,’” Jega said.
The INEC boss vouched for the independence of the national commissioners, saying there is no evidence that any of them is a card-carrying member of any political party.
“I can tell you that I have not seen any evidence of partisanship by any national commissioner in the way we do our work. I don’t know for a fact that they are card-carrying members of any party.
“If there is any evidence, up till now, nobody has produced it. If I had that evidence, I would take it to Mr President for whatever it is worth.”
Jega said though he supported the recommendation that INEC members be appointed by an independent body outside the executive, he accepted the job, convinced he would do his best.
“Now I have been asked to come and chair INEC under a procedure that is different from what I supported; I accepted to do it because I know I can do it to the best of my ability without any compromise.
“I can do it on a non-partisan basis. I can do it impartially. I can do it by creating a level-playing field for everybody to the best of my ability. Obviously, I expect everybody on the commission to do the same.
“As far as I am concerned, I am the Jega that I have been before I came into INEC. I am not about to change. I have not changed. The day I realise I can’t do this job, I will leave it.
“I have done so before in other assignments I have taken; I can do it again. But I don’t run away from responsibilities. The challenges are there; that’s what life is all about. You have to face them frontally and do your best under the circumstances.”
Jega’s dream is to ensure that in 2015, there is a more technologically-enhanced electoral process.
“We are doing massive restructuring in INEC, and by 2015, we want INEC to be the best election management body in Africa,” Jega said.
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