‘Practically Impossible’ For Nigeria To Conduct Five Elections In One Day- Analyst

A legal practitioner, Chukuwuma
Ezeala, on Thursday said it is
“practically impossible” for the electoral
umpire, INEC, to conduct five elections
in one day, owing to the agency’s lack
of capacity to handle the logistics
required and the intelligence level of the
uneducated masses to make the
decisions.
Appearing on Channels Television’s
breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, he
said that two issues must be considered
before the country can conduct five
elections in one day, noting that “we
started with having three elections and
we found out that the cost implication
was very high.”
Calls have been made that the
presidential, Senate, House of
Representative, governorship and House
of Assembly elections be conducted on
the same day in order to reduce the
overall cost of the elections.
However, Ezeala said that this was
impossible in Nigeria, especially with
the current presidential system of
government. He noted that the
uneducated masses may not be capable
of making such decision within one day.
He added that citizens may be confused
as some may want to vote different
political parties depending on the
position in contest.
“Somebody may want to vote for the
presidency in NDP and the governorship
may decide to vote for SPP. If you lump
the whole elections together, there may
be confusion.”
He further mentioned that the electoral
umpire, Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, may not be equipped
to tackle the logistics of such an order.
“Many of us that have worked in
election matters understand what it
means to deal with the logistics of
having five elections at the same time,
collating the results, knowing the ones
you collate and what you are going to
do with it.”
He, however, noted that if proper voter
education is done by the Commission
and political parties, the confusion may
be reduced.