 As the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, battles the destruction of its facilities, the Commission has stated that it is still working on the financial requirements for the 2023 General Elections. The federal government had approved 234.5 billion Naira for the conduct of the 2019 General Elections. And there are strong signs that the 2023 elections would cost much more. And moving on to Ekiti and Anambra elections that will take place soon, we assess INEC's readiness. The first person to discuss this is Festo Sokoye, he's a Chairman, Information and Virtual Education for INEC. Thank you very much, Christo Sokoye, for joining us. Thank you so much. I do not recall any time that has been as tough as this year for the Independent National Electoral Commission, especially in the South East, which all of the burning and, you know, destruction of your facilities. Of course, one would really wonder what 2023 will look like for you with all of these facilities gone and some of your non-sensitive materials that have been destroyed. But let me start by talking about the expansion of polling units that you have undertaken for the past few months. You have wrapped that up, run us through it. You know, the expansion of voter access to business is one of the major projects that this particular Commission impact upon. As we pointed out when we started these projects, the last polling units in Nigeria were created in 1996, and that is 25 years ago. And when these polling units were created, the country had a total registered voter population of 50 million. Now going into the 2019 elections, we had a total registered voter population of 84 million, and yet no new polling unit was created. So what we had was a huge challenge in relation to overcrowding polling units, in relation to our staff being unable to deploy on time, even when they deploy on time, to set up became a huge problem because of the charging number. We also had the challenge that the pandemic set in and it became difficult to also maintain fiscal distancing at the level of the polling units. So we made a determination that the time had come for us to break these 25-year-old genes of inability to assess new polling units. So we decided that since we have been experimenting with baby units, voting points and voting point settlements, that it was important for us to get the buy-in of the critical stakeholders for us to convert these voting points and voting point settlements into full-fledged polling units. And they moved some of them out from their present locations to places that are underserved or not served at all. So that's exactly what we have done. We have completed that assignment in all the states of the Federation, and these took us to all the 774 local government areas of the country. And we referenced all the newly created or newly conceived polling units. And so we've just completed action on that. By next week, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission will unveil these new polling units, will unveil their location, and also will unveil the ones we relocated from inappropriate places to new places. So we are happy that we are able to break these 25-year-olds in terms of having additional polling units in the country. Yeah, let's move on to the fact that you are doing your continuous voter registration that's ongoing. And we hear that you have 2,673 centres where that is going to be ongoing across the country. Yes, by the 28th day of this month, we are going to resume the continuous voter registration exercise in the country. Now, we have also introduced a new innovation in relation to the continuous voter registration exercise. And that is the fact that young men and women and all the other citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who know how to use the computer, who have laptops, who have iPads, who have smartphones, can begin their registration online and then do their biometrics either at our state office or the local government offices and so on. So what do they do online? Are they supposed to fill forms online and then just go to your office for their biometrics to be taken? Yes, that is for new, especially new registrants. They have to, because we are introducing a new generation of women that can capture both increase and also can capture facials. So we are trying to do a bridge between conforming to the law and also conforming to the digital era we are in. So you start your registration online, fill in all your details and then the portal, we have a polling unit locator and maybe a registration area locator that will show you where the new polling units are and where you can go to go and capture your biometrics and your facials. That's a great innovation. So let's talk about the readiness for the elections that are coming in 2023. The fund or the finances for the last elections in 2019 ran into billions and I did make reference to the fact that the asset and the destruction of INEC facilities this year alone is going to run into also maybe billions. What does this make the budget look like? Because I see that you have already started a form of auditing of your facilities that have been destroyed. Is there any figure that INEC has already inside and is it going to be a problem for the federal government to grant INEC's budget for the elections for 2023? Is it something that is within reach? Is it going to be so much cost that it might cost us to drag the elections? We are preparing for some major elections. As we are aware, the commission has fixed the Anambra Gov. election for 6th day of November 2021. So we are getting ready for the Anambra Gov. election. But then the Akiti elections, we hear that they were suspended because of violence. No, no, no, no, we have not suspended the conduct of the Gov. elections in Anambra. I'm going to explain to you why we are not suspended. I'm talking about Akiti states here. Of course, Anambra in itself, I hear, we hear from the reports that are coming from Anambra that there are certain parties that were deregistered who are aggrieved. And although INEC is saying that they only will register only 18 parties, you're recognizing only 18 of these parties. But then there are about 74 parties that have been deregistered. And they're claiming that a Supreme Court, an appeal court has allowed that they be part of these elections. But INEC is still saying that only 18 people will be on that, on the ballot paper. Why is that? Well, you know, some of these cases are pending in the Supreme Court. And in one of the cases, the Supreme Court has made it very, very clear and has affirmed the right of the independent national election to register political parties that do not meet the threshold provided in section 225A of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And so that is settled. Now, there are also some of the parties that see have matter pending in the Supreme Court. And we have made it very clear that the moment the Supreme Court, which is the final court of the land, makes a determination to deliver judgment in relation to the provisions of section 225A of the Constitution. And also in relation to the powers of the commission, to the registered political parties, that whatever the Supreme Court decides, this particular commission will abide. But as of today, we have 18 newly registered political parties in Nigeria. And it is those 18 political parties that are going to contest the Anambra governorship elections that has been slated for November. And what if the Supreme Court, and what if these cases pending in the Supreme Court finally, you know, come through. I mean, we know that the courts have been shut down for some time. And what if these other parties now decide to take you to court against saying that, oh, well, the Supreme Court has finally said that we are duly, supposedly to be registered and should have been part of that election. That's going to mean that INEC will have to allow them into the elections or allow them to fill the candidates. I mean, this is going to somewhat mess up the election calendar, isn't it? You know, this commission doesn't engage in speculative projections. We are a law abiding institution. We are a product of the Constitution and a product of the law. The Supreme Court is the final court of the land. And this commission has a duty to give effect to judgments and orders of the Supreme Court. So if the Supreme Court of Nigeria says that we should input them into the Anambra governorship elections, of course, the commission will have no objection whatsoever to that. So whatever the Supreme Court makes the timing, we will comply. So we have everything under wraps. And what the Supreme Court decides, we have the capacity to abide the Supreme Court decision. Knowing that the Southeast, as we speak now, is a hotbed of sorts and with all of the agitations that have been going on, even though in most states seems to be the hottest place, but Anambra has had his fair share with the candidate, former central bank governor, almost, you know, he was missed by the whiskers. How ready is INEC in terms of security and not just for your officers, but of course the people who are going to be casting their votes knowing that all is not well in the Southeast. Well, you know, you know, our major concern as a present relates to the continuous voters registration exercise that we are supposed to flag up on the 28th day of June 2021. And in this, in this configuration, based on the fact that we have election pending in Anambra state, what the commission decided and what we have determined is that we are going to have more equipment in Anambra state and also have additional stuff in Anambra state. To enable us to start the voters registration exercise in Anambra, pull up from Anambra around August this year, print the voters, the permanent voters cast of the new registrants and all registrants that have had their voters cast defaced or had one problem or the other, and then integrate the supplementary voters register into the main voters register and get it ready for election. So that is what we are getting ready for. So I think that the challenges in Anambra are huge, they are enormous, but this commission has the capacity to somehow some of these challenges. In Anambra state, we lost a total of 376 electric generating sets. We lost 50% of all the necessary materials that we have already delivered to Anambra state, particularly to this particular election. We lost seven of our utility vehicles, and also we had our Collation Centre bond down, but this commission will try as much as possible and as quickly as possible to recover from all these challenges in relation to Anambra state and get ready for the election. But we are liaising with the security agencies in terms of providing adequate security for our facilities, for our staff, and also for every other individual that will be engaged in this process. But more fundamentally, various communities, the political leaders, the political parties themselves, civil society groups and organizations must all come together to enable us to create the present level of insecurity, to enable the commission to deploy and conduct a very good election in Anambra state. Alright, well, first of all, Collier is the Chairman of Voltaire Education and Information with the Independent National Electrical Commission. Thank you very much for giving us this information. Good luck with the elections. Thank you so much. Alright, thank you all for staying with us on PLOS Politics today. I hope you enjoyed yourself. We'll be back tomorrow at 7pm. I am Mary Annacl and have a good evening.