Abuja and Akure — The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced training of political party officials on the use of its the redesigned INEC’s Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP) in preparation for the 2023 general elections.
The candidate nomination portal is one of the technological innovations introduced by the Commission in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic to reduce physical interactions and automate its processes.
Declaring open the 4-day workshop for officials of political parties on the use of the ICNP organised with support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) holding in Abuja from yesterday, the Chairperson of the Legal Services, Clearance and Complaints Committee (LSC&CC), Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, noted that, “the ICNP has been in use since the 2020 Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections.”
She explained that the Electoral Act (2022) which made provision for several technological innovations additionally gave the Commission a general discretion to apply technology as it deems fit.
Hence, the National Commissioner disclosed that the portal was recently redesigned to accommodate the greater demands of a wider, general election nomination process.
According to the Chairperson LSC & CC, “this training is of utmost importance to political parties as it will enlighten them on the guidelines for nomination of candidates and the new procedure of the ICNP bearing in mind that political parties will be submitting forms on the portal in respect of candidates they intend to sponsor for the various offices in 1, 499 constituencies in Nigeria.”
On the expected outcome of the training, Agbamuche-Mbu said, “It is expected that at the conclusion of this training, political parties would have gained extensive knowledge on the new nomination process for the 2023 General Election, demonstrate practical knowledge on how to make submissions on the portal and be equipped with the approved guidelines for nomination of candidates for elections.”
In his welcome address, the Director, ICT, Chidi Nwafor, recognised the important role of the participants, whom he said, were responsible for uploading the nominations of candidates in the off season elections since the introduction of the portal in 2020.
The ICT Director further explained that the ICNP to be used for the 2023 general election would be 90 per cent automated, a movement from the semi-automated process previously used.
Nwafor added that the Commission in its determination to continue to improve the use of technology in the management of elections, has decided to use indigenous content and capacity sourced within Nigeria.
In a goodwill message, the Country Director, IFES, Seray Jah, represented by the Deputy Country Director, Obaje Ukeh, commended INEC for putting together the training with IFES’s support, stating that “we believe will better equip the political parties representatives with the knowledge and skills to effectively and efficiently utilise the candidate nomination portal.”
296, 965 PVCs Still Uncollected in Ondo, Says REC
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ondo State yesterday said 296, 965 Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) printed were still yet to be collected in the state.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Dr. Rufus Akeju, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Akure.
He said: “The CVR exercise is now in its fourth phase which commenced on the 11th of April and will end on the 30th of June, 2022. As at May, 30th 2022, the registration figure stands at 123,981.
“A total of 21,749 PVCs were received by the state for the 1st and 2nd phases of the CVR exercise and are currently being distributed at our various local government area offices. Those who registered during these phases are to avail themselves of this opportunity to collect their PVCs.
“However, 296,965 previously printed PVCs uncollected are still available for collection by the rightful owners at the various local government INEC offices,” he stressed.
Akeju, who explained that the online pre-registration exercise ended on May 30, 2022, and that the registration exercise at INEC offices would come to an end on June 30, 2022, called on eligible Nigerians who are 18 years and above and have not registered before to come out en mass and register since there would be no shift in the closing date.
According to him, the CVR exercise also provides opportunities for transfer of voter’s card, replacement of loss and defaced permanent voters card and update of voters details.
While encouraging registrants to come for the exercise, he said, “we want to sound a note of warning that registering more than once is a criminal offence under the law punishable by prison term of not more than 12 months or a fine of N500,000 or both.
“Section 12 subsections 2 and 3 of the Electoral act. At the end of the CVR exercise a nation-wide Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) will be ran on all registrations and those who register more than once will be fished out, their names expunged from the voter’s register and be prosecuted.”
On gender quality and the electoral process, the INEC REC said, “our staff have been going on several workshops, and seminars on this issue. These workshops/training and capacity building workshops is being organised by the Commission in collaboration with our development partners such as IFES, UNDP, IRI and some Gender/PWDs based civil society organisations.
“An implementation planning workshop/data disaggregation training for gender desk officers was organised in May, 24th -26th 2022 at Ikeja Lagos to review the last INEC Gender Policy (IGP) in view of adopting a more robust IGP. This is to give women more participation in the 2023 general elections.”
Also, as part of efforts to engage the youth to take active interest in political process, he noted that the commission in collaboration with Yiaga Africa, organised a 2-day training in the state on 27th and 28th May, 2022.
He explained that the training was organised to sensitise the youths in the state to take active participation in the electoral process especially the 2023 general elections, stressing that the commission has also embarked on series of steps to include more of people with disabilities (PWD) in the electoral process.