The Center for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch (CeFTIW) has joined other civil society organizations (CSOs) to discuss ways to improve the 2023 general elections.
At the event tagged “The Electorate, a Conversation on Elections in Nigeria,” stakeholders and the general public engage with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on ways to guarantee free, fair and credible election in 2023.
Key issues that bothers on inadequate personnel that is slowing down the continuous voter registration process, electronic transmission of results and logistics challenges during polls were raised.
The Center also expressed concerns in line with its “Electoral Financing” project on the illicit use and monetization of the electoral process, and what the Commission is doing to hold political parties accountable.
The Center’s Electoral Financing project specifically focuses on tracking how political parties and politicians raise funds for campaigns to ensure that the spending ceiling as provided in the electoral laws are not abused.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, while responding to some of the questions raised assured of an improved process in 2023. He noted that elections results would be transmitted electronically immediately from polling units to the Commission portal, adding that this would guarantee less human interference and incidences of ballot snatching.
The INEC Chairman also disclosed that political parties were audited in 2018, and that the Commission has also currently engaged professionals to audit political parties in line with its oversight function.