The Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) says it will sanction any political party,
individual or corporate organisation that commits electoral offence during the
2019 general elections.
Prof. Francis Ezeonu, the
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Imo, said this at a sensitisation
meeting of stakeholders with Imo INEC management on Continuous Voter
Registration (CVR) held in Mbaitoli and Owerri North local government areas.
Ezeonu said Section 94 of the
Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) stipulated guidelines for the conduct of primaries,
electoral campaigns by political parties and behaviours of party faithful and
stakeholders during elections.
He added that the same Electoral
Act frowned at imposition of candidates, use of masquerades and any form of
weapon, hate speeches, as well as campaigning in Churches, Mosques and public
offices.
“We will monitor political
parties to avoid anarchy. If after primaries anyone is denied his/her position,
INEC will not be party to it and will intervene. It will also sanction
defaulting party.
“The guideline is also against
the use of thugs, private militia and vanguards on campaign grounds.”
The REC said the commission would
use Resident Area Camp (RAC) to ensure that election materias were deployed to
polling units on time.
He urged stakeholders to
cooperate with the commission by creating an enabling environment to deploy the
RACs, as well as provide security at RAC areas so that INEC’s property would
not be vandalised.
The Electoral Officer (EO) in
Mbaitoli Local Government Area, Mrs Ngozi Odilinye, said the forum was special
as it offered political parties, town unions, women and youth leaders, and
other stakeholders opportunity to interact with one another and with INEC
management in Imo.
She said the local government
area registered 122,555 voters during the 2014/2015 registration, adding that
till date, 22,333 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were yet to be collected.
Odilinye noted that the
commission had since April 2017, embarked on nationwide CVR, including the
correction of wrong particulars of voters, reprinting of omitted voter cards,
lost and defaced cards and processing of voters’ data for inter and intra state
transfer.
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