allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Why Electoral Reform Panel is Slow, By Uwais (Page 1 of 1)

Chairman of the Electoral Reform Panel, Justice Mohammed Uwais, yesterday said the fear of politicians who believe the timing of the setting up of the committee was wrong slowed down the work of the committee.

Uwais, who made the remark while opening a three-day public hearing on the reform of electoral process in Lagos, said such politicians reasoned that no meaningful progress could be made while petitions are running at various electoral tribunals.

He explained that organising the public hearing had become compelling in view of the six terms of reference handed to the committee by President Umaru Yar'Adua at its inauguration on August 28, last year.

He said the committee had been divided into Team A and Team B to plan towards the public hearing in each of the six geo-political zones of the country.

The public hearing will last seven weeks. Uwais also disclosed that the committee had so far received over 200 memoranda from stakeholders, adding that the public hearing had been conceived with a view to presenting Nigerians who could not send in memoranda with the opportunities to make their positions known.

By so doing, he said the committee would be able to come up with outputs that would enhance the conduct of an election that will conform with international standard. Uwais said: "So far, over 200 memoranda have been received from different stakeholders. We are aware of many more stakeholders willing to present recommendations, but cannot do so for various reasons. That is why the committee is organising a public hearing across the country so that we can come up with ingredients to conduct election that will meet international standard."

The Lagos public hearing falls under Team B led by Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi. Other venues of the hearing being conducted by the team include Yola, Benin City, Ilorin, Enugu, Kano and Abuja, while Team A will hold its hearings in Maiduguri, Ibadan, Jos, Calabar, Sokoto, Owerri and Abuja.

Making a presentation at the occasion, Chairman of the Lagos State Electoral Reform Committee, Prof. Adebayo Williams, who read the recommendations of his committee, submitted that the appointment of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be placed at the doorsteps of the National Judicial Council (NJC) subject to ratification by the National Assembly.

He also suggested that the council should appoint a retired justice of the Supreme Court as the chairman of the commission, saying appointments and promotions of members of the commission should be the exclusive preserve of the commission itself.

Adebayo also said defectors upon their exit from their original party platforms after election should automatically lose their seats and added that recall process should be made less stringent for constituents in order to make it easier for them to have a measure of control over their representatives.

He also stated that his committee recommended the reduction of the number of political parties in the country to the maximum of 10 and minimum of five.

He regretted that many of the political parties in the country today merely collected INEC funds without even presenting a candidate.

In his presentation, former Ogun State governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba, advocated the use of open-secret ballot system as the voting mode.

According to him, on election day the electorate must first assemble at polling stations for accreditation before returning to the polling station again at 12 noon, emphasising that the number of voters accredited must not exceed the number of those earlier accredited.

Meanwhile, Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola yesterday called for a revisit of the issue of electoral register and cards by the electoral reforms committee if the on-going reform process in the country is to be taken seriously.

Fashola, who spoke in his Ikeja office while receiving in audience the Justice Muhammed Uwais-led committee, noted that the state electoral committee was meant to complement the effort of the Federal Government towards having a credible electoral process in the country.

The governor enjoined the committee to focus more on institutions, the people, delimitation of constituencies and procedure in evolving an enduring electoral system in the country.

According to him, the importance of voter's card as an aspect that should be critically looked into by the committee to curb all the illegalities perpetrated during the last general elections.

He advised the electoral reform committee not to recommend a repeat of the exercise describing the last one as a total failure.

Fashola said: "There is much work that needs to be done as regards voter's card in the country as the voter's card has no finger prints. We should stop managing in this country. The best is good for Nigeria.

"If a voter's card did not carry finger-print, it means it could be anybody's card. A voter's card must be unique identification."

He recommended sanction for people who contravene electoral rules and regulations while suggesting declaration of election results as quickly as possible after the election, saying most of the result falsifications often take place at night by the anti-democracy people who are agents of corrupt politicians.

Earlier, the leader of the Presidential Committee on Electoral Reform, Justice Uwais had canvassed non-interference in the proceedings of election tribunals across the country.

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