20100413
africanews

Acting president Goodluck Jonathan of West African nation Nigeria has expressed confidence that the troubled Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could hold credible elections in 2011.

"I am convinced that the present INEC can conduct free and credible elections," Jonathan told a breakfast meeting organised by the Council on Foreign Relations at Washington.

Although there have been several calls for the removal of Professor Maurice Iwu – head of INEC – Jonathan has insisted the problem is not about him but “a missing link.”

He said: "The missing link is that our electoral law says at the end of voting, elections results must be announced at the polling unit. Most of the polling units handle not more than 500 voters, there are very few above that and everybody contesting election is supposed to have an agent at every polling unit.

"We also have observers and our law says at the end of the election, the result must be declared in each of these units, but it is always a problem declaring the result at the unit level because of conflicts. In most cases they take the results, at the end of the voting to the local government headquarters for collation and it is in that process that people think there are wrong-doings.

"That has been the problem in Nigeria and that is why we insist that if you cannot declare the results at that polling unit, we cancel it, all results must be declared at the polling unit and that is what happened in Anambra and Edo."

Credible elections

According to a Daily Trust report the acting president said INEC had demonstrated its ability to conduct credible elections recently in Edo and Anambra states as well as in last weekend's area council poll in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He also said there was no compelling need to change the election laws, as "(even) if you do not change any of our laws, we can still conduct elections."

Jonathan said by June this year, majority of INEC commissioners, including Iwu would have completed their tenure. "Before 2011 there will be a number of changes in INEC.... At the national level, most of the officers have completed their tenure and some will complete theirs in a couple of months.

"So we are going to review them individually and the ones we feel are not good enough to be re-appointed, we will not reappoint them. And we will inject fresh blood and make sure that we bring people that if we mention their names, people in the civil society will be happy, but that is psychological like I said it has to do with perception," he said.