The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun implementing key recommendations from stakeholders regarding the 2023 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this during a meeting with the new European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Gautier Mignot, on Tuesday in Abuja.
He stated that the commission has started reviewing its planning tools, including the Strategic Plan and the Election Project Plan, to improve future elections.
Since the 2023 elections, INEC has received reports from 206 national and international observer groups, including the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM). These reports contain 23 recommendations, eight of which require direct action from INEC, while the remaining 15 involve other institutions such as the executive, judiciary, legislature, civil society organisations, media, faith-based groups, and political parties.
The eight recommendations for INEC focus on:
Disseminating election regulations and guidelines
Enhancing training for election duty staff
Improving electoral technology deployment
Strengthening result management processes
Continuous voter registration and cleaning up the voter register
Encouraging participation of marginalised groups
Facilitating voting for internally displaced persons (IDPs)
Yakubu noted that INEC conducted an extensive internal and external review of the 2023 elections, resulting in two reports: a 524-page main report and a 74-page review report with 142 recommendations. Both documents have been uploaded to INEC’s website.
He also confirmed that the commission has begun implementing recommendations that require only administrative action. For instance, in recent off-cycle, re-run, and bye-elections, improvements have been made in training ad hoc staff and deploying more BVAS machines. Additionally, the functionality of BVAS machines for voter accreditation using fingerprint or facial authentication has significantly improved.
