THE Nominee for the position of Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has told the Senate that one major challenge that confronted him in his first five years was the postponement of 2019 election by one week. Yakubu who is currently being screened by the Senator Kabiru Gaya, All Progressives Congress, APC, Kano South led Senate Committee on INEC that the postponement was a major issue that he learnt a lot from, and hope that such a situation or experience does not occur again.
Prof. Yakubu who noted that there is the need for a very strong institution and manpower for effective service delivery, said, “the Commission has the largest data of citizens in Africa, we have introduced several portals for the nomination of candidates, accreditation of journalists and observers for the election.
“One of the portals is for the offload of results from polling units.
We have also improved accreditation for people with a physical disability including albino. We have also tried to do accreditation for people displaced in IDPs. On Challenges, he said, “one of the most is having to postpone for a week, the 2019 general elections.
It was the most painful decision. But learning from that, we are working very fast to ensure that it doesn’t happen again as we approach 2019.
We have learnt a lot and elections are getting better.” He cited the timely and adequate deployment of logistics for the Edo and Ondo governorship election.
