22nd August, 2014
Prof. Attahiru Jega, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said that delimitation of constituencies would be concluded after the general elections of 2015.
INEC daily bulletin issued in Abuja on Wednesday quoted Jega as saying this on Tuesday at a Public Hearing on a Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act No. 6 of 2010.
The hearing was organised by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Electoral Matters.
Jega said that although the commission and its partners had covered substantial grounds to delimit constituencies, there was a lot more to be done.
“Though substantial work has been done by INEC and its partners to delimit constituencies, the process cannot be concluded and submitted to the National Assembly until after the 2015 general elections,” he said.
He explained that the country’s polling units and registration areas had not been mapped.
He stressed the need to apply Geographic Information System to configure, map out and demarcate the constituencies.
“Without maps, you cannot configure the constituencies. You need to develop maps and then put the population figures,” he said.
The chairman said the commission and its partner agencies had been pooling resources to ensure that the exercise was successful.
The bulletin quoted Jega as describing Diaspora voting as a good international practice which Nigeria needed to emulate.
He said the commission’s staff had observed Diaspora voting in other countries.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, described the public hearing as part of a chain of events that would culminate in the amendment of the Electoral Act.
He said that if the electoral law was morally and technically sound, it would ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He commended the House Committee on Electoral Matters, chaired by Jerry Manwe, ‘for doing a thorough job’.