The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to kick start
pre-election meetings for the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections
tomorrow (Wednesday 12th August).
Towards this end, the Resident Electoral Commissioners for the two states
have been summoned, with their retinue of staff, to the Commission’s
headquarters for the first set of preliminary meetings leading up to the
elections by the Acting Chairman, Amina Bala Zakari.
The Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections are scheduled for Saturday,
28th November and Saturday 5th December 2015 respectively. Already,
critical departments have forwarded their budgets and schedule of
activities for the two elections which were approved by the Commission
last week.
The Commission is also to meet on Thursday this week with Resident
Electoral Commissioners (RECs). This would be the first such quarterly
meeting under the watch of the Acting Chairman, Amina Bala Zakari.
Highlights of the meeting, according to sources close to the Commission’s
Secretariat include: articulating modalities for Continuous Voter
Registration (CVR), distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), review
of on-going litigations/Tribunal cases, storage of the Smart Card Readers
deployed in the 2015 general elections and the impending Borno Senatorial
bye-election.
Meanwhile, and following the recommendations of the Commission’s retreat
held in June at Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, and the recommendations of various
stakeholders, all Directors have been directed to come up today with
short-and long-term plans for budget implementation.
The meeting will, among others, look at how to institutionalize
performance evaluation, hone the Commission’s business processes, take
another look at the Strategic Plan (2012-2016) with a view to concluding
tasks that are outstanding and to consider what is to be implemented.