The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it can conduct successful local government elections if given the resources.
Chairman Mahmoud Yakubu said this yesterday when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Electoral Committees.
According to him, INEC has the capacity, competence, human resources and adequate experience to conduct elections in the 774 councils. Yakubu cited the successful conduct of the six Federal Capital Territory Area Councils’ election, as well as the off-season and by-elections conducted by the Commission.
He said: “So if this responsibility for the con – duct of local government elections is transferred to INEC, can INEC cope?
“A national electoral commission may be expected to implement only the presidential and National Assembly. “We also do governor ship elections, we do state assembly elections, and we do the area council elections in the FCT.
“Our track report actually proves that we can do it. “Take the case of the FCT. I would like to say one or two things about the FTC local government election. “There are six area councils of the FCT.
So there are six chairmen of area councils, and there are 62 wards in the FCT. “Each ward has a councillorship for the election of councils.
“This is one part of the country where INEC has conducted local government elections and it has resulted in the following:
“First, it is perhaps the only part of the country where local government elections are held regularly. Second, there has never been a caretaker committee for any area council in the FCT.
“INEC has been conducting the elections regularly. “Thirdly, there is stability of tenure or security of tenure. “No single political party has ever won elections in all the constituencies in the FCT, not one.
“What is interesting now is that out of the six chairmen of the FCT, actually the council and the constituencies are evenly split between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party which won three councils each.”
