Reform INEC Now- Bayelsa Lawyer

A Nigerian who participated actively in the just concluded off-season governorship election in Bayelsa State, Mr. Tupere Bruno says the first step to ensure that emancipation occurs in Nigeria’s democratic experiment, is to reform the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).
Mr. Bruno made this observation last Friday in a chat with National Point in Port Harcourt.
According to him, “The first step to ensure democratization and emancipation in our uninterrupted 24 years of democracy and beyond, is to reform the Independent National Electoral Commission of this country.
“The officials of INEC have not been following the rules and regulations they set for themselves. Therefore, reforming INEC means adjusting the process of collating of election result on election days”.
The Bayelsa born legal luminary from Kolokoma Constituency I, stated that since Nigeria has a terrible electoral system, the way forward is to standardize INEC.
“Given that Nigeria still has a very terrible electoral system or process, the way forward therefore, is to make INEC standard without human factor. INEC needs improvement. If the processes or systems are standardized, people can stay at their homes and offices and cast their votes during election.
“In fact, if we are serious about the reform of INEC, it will eliminate or reduce the manual process of collation of results during elections at the polling units,” Mr. Bruno emphasized.
On the landslide victory of the PDP in the just-concluded off-season election in Bayelsa State, Mr. Bruno had this to say: “I am not surprised about the landslide victory of PDP in the just concluded off-season election. In fact, in Bayelsa State we do not have other political parties except the PDP. Our political affiliation and preference in Bayelsa State is still PDP, while the APC in Baylesa State has the penchant of fielding wrong candidates. If election is conducted in Bayelsa State 100 times, the PDP will emerge victorious,” Mr. Bruno stated.
He expressed disaffection with those who criticized the statement of former President Goodluck Jonathan on the Bayelsa State governorship election, saying that there is nothing wrong with what he said.
“I can remember that former President Jonathan said that if PDP had not won in Baylesa State’s last gubernatorial election, he would have re-located his mother to Abuja, FCT. For me, nothing is wrong with what former President Jonathan said. You will recall that before now, former President Jonathan has been sitting on the fence but in this last governorship election, he came out to endorse a candidate of his choice,” Mr. Bruno asserted.
In 2022, the 9th National Assembly enacted the 2022 Electoral Reform. It is also on record that recently, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, FCT accused INEC of being biased and even warned the officials of the commission to stop dancing naked.