Chidoka, Ex-Minister, Says Electoral Law Needs Third-party Certification

Ayodeji Ake

Former Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka, has said the new Electoral Act Ammendment Bill into law signed by President Muhammadu Buhari needs a third party certification to confirm its processes to record success in the coming 2023 general election.

Speaking on Good Morning Show on Arise TV yesterday, Chidoka said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) needed to advertise and contract a third party, an independent company that will test the electoral technology processes introduced by the commission to ensure it could perform the general election task ahead

He lamented the new technology failed in some parts of the Anambra state during the last gubernatorial election, which may be a risk to the forthcoming general election if not properly tested and certified.

He said: “We are going into an electronic election which is critical and hasn’t been tested. INEC has introduced a bimodal voter’s accreditation process. I have read about it online I discovered INEC built the technology with their technology engineer. This technology failed us in Anambra because it was partly successful but I am worried about the transparency of the system.

“The electoral bill should have taken a change in the new process whereby the technology that has been introduced will be reviewed by a third party for a certification system for the technology. A third party, which has to be an independent party that will certify that with the technology, INEC is capable of conducting an election nationwide.”
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain expressed disappointment in Buhari for taking seven years to sign the electoral amendment bill into law.

“I received the news with mixed feelings. I did not feel any excitement by the time the president did what the constitution required of him to assent the law passed by the National Assembly. I’m disappointed that after seven years in office, the president is signing an electoral law at this time. And I asked myself how can somebody, who in 2003, 2007, and,2011 said he was cheated and went to the Supreme Court to challenge it and seven years into his government, he is just signing an electoral act amendment.

“I don’t know if there is anybody, who has suffered electoral injustice and coming to power, refused to sign the electoral bill? Late President Yar’Adua came to power in 2007 and he in his inaugural speech acknowledged that the election that brought him to power was faulty and the first thing he did was to set up a commission to look into that system and years after we still talking about signing the electoral act. I’m not one of those who feels excited. The good part is that we have an electoral law amendment that all the innovations that INEC has introduced have been entailed in the law,” he said.