Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Yakubu Mahmood, has said neither the executive nor the legislature has the right to initiate amendments to the Electoral Act.
He declared that the slow pace of work on the reworked Electoral Act Amendment Bill is beginning to take a toll on the commission’s preparation for the general election in February next year.
Yakubu spoke yesterday in Abuja at a one-day Policy Dialogue organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in collaboration with Westminister Foundation for Democracy (WFD).
He was represented by his Chief Technical Adviser, Prof Bolade Eyinla.
Yakubu said with the new Electoral law still being awaited, the commission has not been able to come up with clear-cut guidelines for the conduct of the 2023 polls.
“The situation at hand now is that roughly a year to the general election, the anticipated laws are not yet approved, meaning that the extant one will be used aside from the fact that the process has not enabled INEC to come up with clear cut guidelines for the conduct of the elections,” Prof Eyinla said.
Yakubu’s predecessor Prof Attahiru Jega also expressed reservations on the delay in assenting to the reworked bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He played what he described as a growing lack of sense of urgency on the executive and the legislature to complete work on the Electoral Bill.
While warning against foot-dragging on the all-important bill, Jega said the country cannot afford to go into fresh elections next year with the same old laws.
