Prof. Ritchard Nwokocha, an Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at Rivers State University, has criticized the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) ability to handle local government elections, citing previous inadequacies and transparency issues.
This comes as the House of Representatives moves to transfer the authority of conducting local elections from State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC) to INEC, raising constitutional concerns and the need for a comprehensive amendment.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Prof. Nwokocha expressed doubts about INEC’s ability to resolve electoral issues at the local government level. He argued that INEC’s performance in the previous Edo elections fails to address these problems adequately, even noting the “hula balu in the country whether or not the last general elections were transparent.”
A corresponding bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to amend the Electoral Act, 2022 to vest INEC with the power to conduct Local Government Council Elections and for Related Matters,” passed its first reading in the House last Thursday.
Nwokocha stated that the law provides for the state to establish equivalent bodies or recommend their formation. He emphasized that, without amending the constitution, it is impossible to create a local government elections commission or for INEC to conduct local government elections as such actions would conflict with constitutional provisions and the concurrent list, which mandates states to establish these bodies.
“I think you need a holistic constitutional amendment for that part before you can even try to do anything like that,” the professor stated. “What INEC is empowered to do in local government is in the local government of the FCT which falls under their jurisdiction because they are creations of the National Assembly which is exercising exclusive list powers.”
He further stressed that conducting elections should not be “rocket science”, advocating for real-time voting and asserting that all that’s required is goodwill.
“It should be possible if we had functioning institutions to have those institutions conduct these things,” he added.
Frances Ibiefo
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