The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says Nigeria having a new electoral framework ahead of the 2023 general elections depends on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly.

INEC commissioner Festus Okoye said this at the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room National Stakeholders’ Forum on Elections in Abuja.

Mr Okoye pointed out that INEC was still operating with the existing electoral legal framework.

“INEC is the first electoral management body in Africa to introduce online voter registration exercise, and based on this, you can see the astronomical rise in the number of young persons who have done their pre-registration before capturing their biometrics,” he pointed out. “Now, what is it in the new electoral bill that is different? Prior to this particular period, the uploading of polling units results was just for public views.’’

Mr Okoye said the second issue related to internal democracy in political parties had been challenging. In the existing electoral legal framework, two methods of voting in a primary, direct and indirect, has been imputed.

“What we must set aside is that the success or otherwise of the conduct of direct primaries resides with the political parties because it is the political party that will hire the venue for their own primaries,” the INEC official explained. “INEC will not hire venues for them. They are going to print their own ballot papers and result sheets. They are going to get their own ballot boxes because we gave them ballot boxes in the past, and most of them didn’t return them.”

He stressed that INEC’s “function is to monitor what they have said they are going to do.”

(NAN)