Don't expect a perfect election in 2015 - Jega

The Independent National Electoral Commission has told Nigerians not to expect a perfect election in the 2015 general polls.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, stated this on Monday in Abuja during a courtesy call on him by the new United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle.

He however stressed that certain measures were being put in place by INEC to achieve success.

The comment came on the heels of Jega’s earlier remarks during a recent stakeholders meeting that the 2015 general elections would be conducted in February and requested for N93bn for the commission.

He told the US envoy that “we are not promising a perfect election in 2015 but we are confident that we will do our best. We have taken some steps to achieve this. For instance, staff training, in collaboration with development partners, strategic plans and re-organised staff. We are planning a retreat to finalize the timetable for 2015.

“We are still on the continuous voters register and have held series of meetings with security agencies, Civil Society Organizations and development partners ahead of 2015. While it is the responsibility of INEC to organise civic and other registration awareness, the commission faces challenges of funding as well.”

The INEC Chairman added that although it was the responsibility of the commission under the Electoral Act to do civil and political education, “it has always been challenging.”

He said, “The resources available to discharge that responsibility are usually insufficient, given the enormity of the task of dealing with a large illiterate population and to get them really understand what to do not only during voting but the larger issues of costing good candidates and so on. So there is a lot of things the CSOs can do.”

The US ambassador said the Barack Obama’s administration was committed to a transparent election in Nigeria come 2015.