Agency constitutes diaspora voting, electoral constituencies committees

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has constituted a 10-member committee on the Review of Diaspora or Out-of-Country Voting.

Also constituted, according to the commission’s daily bulletin issued on Tuesday in Abuja are eight-member committee for the Review of Electoral Constituencies and committee for Review of Polling Units and Registration Areas.

It said that other committees set up included those on Review of the Suppressed Constituencies and Review of GIS Laboratory.

The commission explained that the committees were constituted as part of its effort at improving the electoral process, adding that the committees were chaired by its National Commissioners.

It said that all the committees were expected to submit their final reports to the commission within six weeks.

The term of reference for the Committee on Review of Electoral Constituencies, according to the bulletin, include reviewing INEC’s past and recent attempts at delimitation of constituencies and make recommendations on the way forward.

It added that the committee was also mandated to review and advice on INEC’s collaboration with other government agencies and listed them as National Population Commission, National Space Research and Development Agency and National Broadcasting Commission.

Others are the Office of The Surveyor General of the Federation, National Boundary Commission and Nigerian Postal Service.

“The committee is to also review existing delimitation guidelines and develop new guidelines for delimitation/delineation of the federal constituencies to meet the demand of the current state of the nation."

It added that the Committee on the Review of Polling Units and Registration Areas, chaired by Prof. Okey Ibeanu, had as term of reference, to consider the current status of Polling Units and Registration Areas, nationwide.

The committee is also expected to propose a framework and criteria for review as well as recommend a plan of action for the commission’s approval.

Mr Adedeji Soyebi was named as Chairman of Committee on Review of Suppressed Constituencies, while Amina Zakari would chair the committee on diaspora voting.

According to the bulletin, the chairman of the Committee on Review of GIS Laboratory is Dr Mohammed Lecky.