2023 General Election Will Be Better Than Previous Ones – INEC Assure Nigerians

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has put the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on notice that the 2023 General Election must be better than all the previous general elections conducted by the Commission.

To achieve the dream, the RECs have been directed to compile and submit an inventory of all election materials in their possession in order to determine existing shortfalls and take early, proactive steps to fill the gaps.

Prof. Yakubu, who spoke today in Abuja at the Commission’s second quarterly meeting with the RECs this year, also noted that the decision to begin preparations well ahead of time was intended to enable the Commission address some of the logistics issues that had become a recurring decimal in the conduct of previous elections.

His words:

“As we continue to plan for the next General Election, the RECs have been directed to compile and submit an inventory of all election materials in order to determine shortfalls and take early steps to ensure their adequacy and availability.

“Only a few States are still outstanding. I wish to remind the States that are yet to make their submissions to do so by the end of this week. This will enable us to address some of the logistics issues that have become a recurring decimal in the conduct of elections in the past. The 2023 General Election must be different formal previous elections in terms of our preparations and readiness”.

Prof Yakubu also described the current engagements with stakeholders over the proposed expansion of voter access to polling units as well as the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) as “inter-related.” He revealed the plan to conclude the ongoing consultations and the actual work on the polling units to enable INEC make the new locations public for eligible registrants to choose where they wish to register and vote on Election Day.