By Jude Opara, Abuja

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun the training of officials of political parties on the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP) for the conduct of the forthcoming exercise.

The programme was put together in collaboration with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Declaring the occasion open, INEC National Commissioner, Mrs.

Agbamuche-Mbu further explained that with the signing of the Electoral Act in February, the political parties have 180 days to the next general elections, adding that the Electoral Act has made the inclusion of technology as part of the process.

“The Electoral Act, 2022, has made provision for several technological innovations and has additionally given the Commission a general discretion to apply technology as it sees fit. 

“Prior to the 2019 General Election, you will recall that the nomination process was manual and fraught with a plethora of challenges, which necessitated the launch of the ICNP. The ICNP has been in use since the 2020 Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections. The portal was though recently redesigned to accommodate the greater demands of a wider, general election nomination process. 

“This training is of utmost importance to political parties as it will enlighten them on the guidelines for nomination of candidates and the new procedure of the ICNP bearing in mind that political parties will be submitting forms on the portal in respect of candidates they intend to sponsor for the various offices in One Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety-Nine (1, 499) constituencies in Nigeria. 

“It is expected that at the conclusion of this training, political parties would have gained extensive knowledge on the new nomination process for the 2023 General Election, demonstrate practical knowledge on how to make submissions on the portal and be equipped with the approved Guidelines for the Nomination of Candidates for Elections as stipulated in the Electoral Act, 2022. I am convinced that with the highly experienced resource persons provided, these objectives would be achieved”. 

Also giving a background of the training programme, the INEC Director of Legal Department, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Babalola said INEC is an organization that has as its mission the conduct of free, fair, and credible elections and the vision of being one of the best Election Management Bodies (EMBs) in the world that meets the aspirations of the Nigerian people.

Babalola said; “It is imperative that INEC must consciously, deliberately, and vigorously pursue measures that make the election process seamless, a seamless process for the submission of names of nominated candidates by political parties is not negotiable if the electoral process will be seen as free, fair, credible and inclusive”. 

She added; “By the provision of Section 29 of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the general elections, the names of all candidates nominated by political parties shall be submitted to the Commission via the ICNP on the date stipulated in the timetable. It is worthy of note that the procedure for submission of nomination forms by political parties has in recent times gone through several modifications due to the recent technological innovative developments in the electoral process by the Commission and also, the recent enactment of the Electoral Act, 2022”. 

She further stated that the demands of the forthcoming 2023 General Election, as well as subsequent elections, the Commission has approved the redesign of the ICNP which will indisputably improve the nomination process for the elections.