Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, yesterday stirred the hornet’s nest again as he ruled out the possibility of free and fair elections in the country under a democratic government.

In his submission to the Constitution Review Committee of the House of Representatives, Iwu pointed that the elections that were being celebrated as free and fair were conducted by the military.
“If we have a dictatorship, we will have a flawless election. Elections that Nigerians have praised were conducted by the military. The fact that the elections were conducted under the military makes them undemocratic,” he said.

The INEC boss stated that democratic elections were never flawless, adding that it was part of the democratic process that Nigerians should bear in mind that anything outside elections conducted by democratic government was nothing but dictatorship, which must be resisted.

Admitting for the first time that that there were interference in the conduct of the 2007 elections, Iwu, however, blamed it on the National Assembly that removed a clause that operations of INEC should not be interfered with while amending the 2004 Electoral Act in 2006.
“I think the National Assembly should be held accountable for the so called lack of independence of INEC.
“I say so because there was a vital clause in the 2004 Electoral Act that says nobody should interfere with the functions of INEC. But the clause was removed by the National Assembly in the 2006 Electoral Act,” he said.

Iwu, who called for the return of the clause, warned the National Assembly to be mindful of what it does with the review of the Electoral Act as time was not on the side of the commission for the 2011 elections.
“We should be mindful of what we do now because we have less than two years to a general election. We should go to areas where changes would add value to our electoral systems. By now, people should know better about the laws guiding our elections,” the INEC boss stated.
As long as the constitution remains unaltered, Iwu said the commission would continue to register more political parties from groups that meet the criteria, adding that political parties are not registered for the purpose of election alone.

Towards enhancing the credibility of the 2011 elections, he said INEC had added two new bodies - Election Monitoring and Observation Committee and Inter-Party Advisory Committee to help resolve problems arising from the parties.
National Chairman of the National Conscience Party, Mr Femi Falana, in his submission, cautioned against repeat what happened in 2007 in 2011, saying that it could lead to war, as Nigeria is now a reference point in conducting bad elections.

He enjoined the sub committee to hold a closed door meeting with officials of INEC so to get the true pictures of what they went through in the hands of people that appointed them into office.
According to him, the 1999 Constitution was the greatest obstacle to the independence of INEC as its composition had been compromised to be populated only by members of the ruling party.
Most of the registered political parties that made presentation opposed restriction of the number of political parties, as they argued that it was against democratic norms to close the political landscape.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/aug/14/national-14-08-2009-03.htm