Iwu, Osoba disagree on mode of elections
INEC chairman Maurice Iwu yesterday insisted that the commission will use the open-secret ballot system, as against Option-A4 or Modified Open Ballot System, being canvassed by Chief Olusegun Osoba and others.
The two spoke yesterday in Abuja at the 4th Trust Annual Dialogue entitled:`` 2007 Elections: Getting it Right'' and sharply disagreed on mode of conducting the forthcoming elections.
Osoba, in his paper, affirmed that the Option-A4 or the Modified Open Ballot System (MOBS) was the only electoral system that had produced the country's most credible elections in 1993, saying that all other elections lacked credibility.
Osoba, a former governor of Ogun state, insisted that for this year's elections to be credible, ``the Modified Open Ballot System (MOBS) should be used as it was used in 1993''.
``Under MOBS, accreditation is done between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., while voting by secret ballot will take place at 12 noon simultaneously throughout the country.
``Results at each polling booth will be announced on the spot to the hearing of the public,'' he said.
Osoba, an AC chieftain, called on the citizens to urge the National Assembly to revisit the Electoral Act ``to save this country from visible electoral chaos ahead of us by inserting details of MOBS as amendments to the Electoral Act''.
He advised the INEC chairman and his team to adopt the electoral system for the 2007 elections to minimise rigging and give credibility to the results.
Reacting, Iwu noted that ``using Option-A4 is like prescribing anarchy for our country's electoral system, it is not in our constitution and so, we can't use it.''
He, however, conceded that the foundation for free and fair elections must be laid, while promoting sincerity of purpose in policies, action and disposition of political actors.
He reiterated that INEC was determined to conduct free, fair and credible elections in April, saying that the commission's policies and actions were directed toward that end.
The INEC boss listed registration of more political parties, provision of electronic voter register with the image and bio-data of voters, as part of the commission's strategies directed at conducting credible elections this year.
However, Iwu identified electoral violence, pervasive influence of money in Nigeria's politics and the lack of gender equity in the political landscape, as some of the challenges facing the country;s political process.
``Quietly and steadily, the commission has been pursuing programmes that aim to address these problems,'' he said.
Besides, Iwu urged the citizens to come forward and volunteer to be part of the INEC ad-hoc staff for the forthcoming elections, instead of ceding the activities to potential election riggers.
As part of INEC strategies to curtail election rigging, Iwu disclosed that ballot papers would vary from one election to another and from one constituency to another, with candidates' photographs embossed on them.
``These and many more other steps are informed by the commitment of the commission to ensure that we get it right this time around. We must have free, fair and credible elections,'' he said.
In his welcome speech, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Media Trust Limited, Alhaji Abdumumini Bello, said that the dialogue presented a platform for the promotion of significant ideas, issues and opinions, considered germane to national survival.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Abdullahi Adamu of Nasarawa state and the deputy governors of Plateau, Zamfara and Borno states attended the forum.
Other dignitaries at the event included former Head of State, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar, Justice Mohammed Uwais, Alhaji Hassan Ahmad, Chief Sunday Awoniyi and the representative of the Senate President, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba.