2011 Polls: Jega Admits Flaws

Leadership

11 May 2011

2011 Polls: Jega Admits Flaws

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has admitted that there were many flaws in the just concluded  general election in Nigeria. He, however, added that the election was freer, fairer and more peaceful than previous ones.Professor Jega, while giving his keynote address at a forum organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC on Tuesday said: “We knew that it would be difficult to do a perfect job; and there are certainly many imperfections with the 2011 election.”

The INEC chairman further said that conducting elections that are free, fair, peaceful and credible in a country such as Nigeria, given its size, large population, terrain and ethno-religious diversity, is a very difficult assignment.

Jega, a former vice-chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, also noted that a perfect election looked like an impossible task under the circumstances in which the INEC had to conduct the 2011 voter registration and the election itself.

“But the overwhelming encouragement, support and assistance, which the Commission received from stakeholders in Nigeria, friends of Nigeria abroad and Nigeria’s development partners, motivated and inspired us to do our best under very difficult circumstances,” he added.

He pressed further that the electoral commission was gratified by the general acknowledgment and appreciation of the progress made so far, adding that it was indeed difficult but doable under the circumstances.