•Samson Itodo
The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, says there is a need to introduce a law that will make sure that electoral disputes are concluded before swearing-in.
Itodo stated this during an interview on Channels TV last night.
He said the darkest side of elections in 2024 was vote buying, which characterised many elections.
He urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to articulate his electoral reforms.
Itodo said, “At the electoral reform conference, the youth who will be participating need to do four things. One, they need to call on the president to articulate his electoral reform agenda. In February it will be the midterm of the general election. And the president has not articulated his electoral reform agenda. So he needs to do that.
“Second, there are some issues. What are the priority issues? The first one is the need to legalize and articulate electronic transmission of results. Currently we have manual collation and transmission of results.
“Just like the Supreme Court advised, even though I have my own views, there is the need to provide legal protection on the use of IReV. There is the need for electronic collation and transmission not as a substitute to the manual collation; but to have both of them go hand-in-hand to serve as a check. That will strengthen IReV.
“The third relates to the timeline of the conclusion of electoral disputes before swearing-in. There is a great need to conclude electoral disputes before swearing-in because that way it will address issues around distraction and all things on bandwagon effect. The last is to strengthen the Commission.”
