{"id":339385,"date":"2011-03-26T02:49:34","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T02:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/"},"modified":"2011-03-26T02:49:34","modified_gmt":"2011-03-26T02:49:34","slug":"how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By OKEY NDIRIBE Asst. POL .EDITOR
On several occasions last Wednesday, tension mounted at the conference hall of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while the meeting between\u00a0 the leadership of the electoral commission and those of\u00a0 63 political parties in the\u00a0 the country lasted.<\/p>\n

\"\"The charged atmosphere usually followed\u00a0 brickbats between leaders of several of the political parties who were present at the venue for the dialogue.\u00a0 At a stage,\u00a0 it took the intervention of the Chairman of the Commission Prof. Attahiru Jega to ensure that\u00a0 the National Internal Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party Dr Samuel\u00a0 Ortom-who represented the National Chairman of the party- was allowed to make his contribution.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ortom had been heckled by leaders of several\u00a0 other political parties present,\u00a0 until the INEC boss came to his rescue. Ortom had attempted to defend President Goodluck Jonathan who had earlier\u00a0 been accused by the National Chairman and Presidential candidate of the African Rennaissance Party Alhaji\u00a0 Yahya Ndu of spending $10,000 dollars per hour to hire aircraft for his campaigns.<\/p>\n

Alhaji Ndu had wanted to know from INEC the source of the funds President Jonathan has been drawing from to run his campaign given the role the commission is supposed to play in monitoring\u00a0 the finances of all the political parties in the country.<\/p>\n

The INEC Chairman stated that the commission would surely investigate and prosecute political parties found to be violating the law on the sourcing of their funding but insisted that this could only be done after the electoral body has been furnished with adequate evidence.<\/p>\n

There was another angry reaction from one of the party chieftains after the National Chairman of Congress for Progressive Change ( CPC) Chief Tony Momoh spoke. The CPC was accused of instigating the spate of violence in parts of the North.<\/p>\n

However, many of the partly leaders expressed satisfaction with the performance of the leadership of the commission\u00a0 in its preparations towards a successful conduct of the forth-coming general election.<\/p>\n

The party leaders eulogised the Prof. Jega- led INEC for its demonstrable commitment to hold a credible election in less than two weeks time.<\/p>\n

To further reassure the party chieftains that he meant business, the INEC Chairman had concurred with the proposal made by\u00a0 them that some of the senior officials of the commission across the states \u2013especially the state\u00a0 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and the Electoral Officers (Eos)- should be redeployed before the poll.<\/p>\n

The INEC Chairman said\u00a0 that the redeployment of officers of the commission would be across all levels of electoral body.<\/p>\n

In response to another question, Prof jega stated that\u00a0 direct data capture (DDC) machines could not be used for next\u00a0 month\u2019s\u00a0 poll because of the several challenges they pose to the commission, adding that a section of the Electoral Act which prohibits electronic voting\u00a0 was one of such obstacles.<\/p>\n

Said he: \u201c There is a possibility that somebody could go to court to challenge us if we use DDC machines since there is an aspect of the law which prohibits electronic voting. Use of these machines even for the purpose of accrediting voters could attract such a legal action and we have to avoid anything that could be used by anybody to stall the election\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Prof Jega used the opportunity to dismiss the insinuation in some quarters that INEC\u2019s voters register was manually compiled stressing that the commission\u2019s register was electronically generated.<\/p>\n

Throwing more light on security\u00a0 arrangements that had been put in place for the poll Prof. Jega said that there would be a list of security agents accredited to cover every polling unit\u00a0 in the country.<\/p>\n

He further explained that apart from the commission so far\u00a0 acquiring 500 pick-up vans\u00a0 and 60 boats\u00a0 for the delivery of electoral materials across the country, another 100 vans were still being expected.<\/p>\n

He also said the commission had been assured by the leadership of both the Navy and Airforce that they were prepared to assist the electoral body for the purpose of delivering electoral materials to any part of the country.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the controversy that has trailed the list of candidates vying for various offices published by the commission so far, Prof Jega stated that the electoral body had not on its own substituted the names of candidates submitted by various political parties adding that what the commission had so far was guided by the relevant\u00a0 laws and guidelines for\u00a0 party primaries.<\/p>\n

Commenting further on measures that have been introduced for\u00a0 the purpose of\u00a0 ensuring next month\u2019s poll is free and fair, Prof. Jega explained that the period of four hours that was set aside for the purpose of voters accreditation on polling day is to forestall\u00a0 multiple\u00a0 voting and other electoral malpractices adding that\u00a0 voters could stay or go home after exercising their franchise.<\/p>\n

In his own presentation at the meeting, INEC\u2019s Director of Operations Mr Okey Ndeche said preparations had been completed for INEC staff to be camped at voting centres,\u00a0 nation-wide on April 1. Throwing more light on the voting procedure that would be adopted on polling day, he said there would be a headcount of voters on queue\u00a0 before actual voting commences.<\/p>\n

In his own remarks at the meeting,\u00a0 INEC\u2019s\u00a0 Director of Logistics Alhaji Usman Farouk said only 20 parties- out of the 63 registered in the country-\u00a0 fielded\u00a0 presidential candidates\u00a0 for the election .<\/p>\n

He further explained that ballot\u00a0 boxes\u00a0 that would be used for the election would be coded according to the voting centres across the nation adding that there would be cubicles for polling stations located in open places.<\/p>\n

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\nHow Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By OKEY NDIRIBE Asst. POL .EDITOR On several occasions last Wednesday, tension mounted at the conference hall of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while the meeting between\u00a0 the leadership of the electoral commission and those of\u00a0 63 political parties in the\u00a0 the country lasted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-339385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\nHow Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"How Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By OKEY NDIRIBE Asst. POL .EDITOR On several occasions last Wednesday, tension mounted at the conference hall of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while the meeting between\u00a0 the leadership of the electoral commission and those of\u00a0 63 political parties in the\u00a0 the country lasted.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c865127002-300x202.jpg.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"How Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-26T02:49:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/\"},\"wordCount\":975,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c865127002-300x202.jpg.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/\",\"name\":\"How Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c865127002-300x202.jpg.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-26T02:49:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c865127002-300x202.jpg.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/2c865127002-300x202.jpg.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/26\/how-jega-defused-tension-at-meeting-with-party-leaders\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"How Jega defused tension at meeting with party leaders - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"By OKEY NDIRIBE Asst. 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