The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has warned journalists to be wary of the new issues, new provisions and grey areas in the Electoral Act, 2022 so as to be guided in election coverage.
The National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Barrister Festus Okoye who gave the warning recently at a one-day forum on Ekiti, Osun States Governorship elections and the 2023 general election organised by the INEC Press Corps in Abuja said it will be unsafe to assume that the coverage of all elections is the same or that changes in the law will not substantially or materially affect the conduct and outcome of an election.
He noted that elections and electoral laws are different and as such, the responsibility of the journalist to find the law, be abreast of its provisions and apply it to election coverage, hence the need for training and retraining of journalists to effectively carry out their work.
Barrister Okoye, advised journalists to build their capacity through capacity-building courses so as to be in a position to understand the variables of Nigerian society in the context of the law and the constitution.
The National Commissioner, cautioned journalists to avoid sensationalism, not rely on rumours and unverified information as doing so can trigger a breakdown of law and order adding that the journalist must be circumspect and not give in easily to the temptation of joining a section of the new media in the breaking news syndrome
According to him, a journalist must on no account rely exclusively on unverified and unverifiable social media accounts and reports but must at all times be careful in relying on “sources that wish not to be named” or on sources “not authorized to speak” on particular issues.
He emphasized that delivering a free, fair, credible and inclusive election is a multi-stakeholder undertaking that must have the cooperation of the civil society organizations, the media, the security agencies and the political parties even though the Electoral Act 2022 has strengthened the hands of the Commission in the conduct of elections and institutionalized the use of technology to obviate human errors in the electoral process.
In a presentation on technological innovations in elections as antidote to electoral fraud, Engineer Chidi Nwafor, said with technology, the Commission hopes to stop voter intimidation, voter misinformation, vote buying, misleading or confusing ballot papers, misreporting of voter and voter impersonation among others.
According to him, lack of authentic voter register provides necessary environment for electoral vices to thrive, adding that double registration enables politicians to rig elections.
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