Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has explained why the commission has not acted on the controversy trailing the Rivers Assembly.
The leadership of the faction loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara wrote the commission to conduct bye election to fill the position of the 25 members of the Assembly loyal to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Some Nigerians also accused the commission of failing to act on the request by the lawmakers.
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting with Media Executives at the Commission headquarters in Abuja, Mahmood said it has not acted because of the several conflicting court judgements on the crisis in the Assembly.
He also noted that as a result of the crisis and the conflicting judgements of courts at the state and federal levels, the commission has also not conducted the bye election into the l Assembly occasioned by the death of one of the members.
He disclosed that the Commission was looking towards the middle of December to conduct bye elections into the House of Representatives declared vacant as a result of death of members of the House as well as some House of Assembly seats.
According to him: “The seats of 25 members of the Rivers state House of Assembly were declared vacant by three other members. The 25 members also declared the seat of the three vacant.
“After that, there was a court judgement from the Rivers High Court as well as the Federal High Court on the legitimacy of each of these group of lawmakers. We at INEC has been following the development. We don’t know what will happen next and so, we are seeking the views of Nigerians, especially legal experts on this.
On the bye elections, he said the commission was working out the logistics for the conduct, adding that it will soon announce the date for the elections.
Mahmood said that the Commission was carrying out consultations on the possibility of having political parties that won election into the parliament, but lost such member either due to death or resignation to nominate a candidate to fill the vacant position.
According to him, the tenure of lawmakers are tied to the particular assembly they were elected to, hence the need to ensure that such positions are not left vacant.
He said conduct of bye elections has created lots of logistic issues for the commission, adding that between July 2023 when the current government came into power, it has about 20 bye elections.
He explained that in other parts of the world, the political party whose member dies simply nominate another person to take over the seat, adding that in Nigeria, this is not the case.
He said the commission was discussing the possibility of adopting the same method with stakeholders in the nation’s electoral process, while asking for suggestions from Nigerians.
Onn preparation for the Ondo governorship election, the INEC boss said the Commission has learnt lessons from previous elections with mass improvement on the voter accreditation process and the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
