Ahead of the country’s next general election in 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday revealed that it has started the process, and that N1.4 billion has been earmarked for the purchase of ballot boxes needed for the conduct of the elections.

According to Ceoafrica, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu dropped the hint during the 2017 budget defence session before the House of Representative Committee on Electoral Matters and Political Parties Affairs.

Yakubu expressed frustration over the dwindling number of Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, noting that by March about 5 RECs would retire, bringing the total number of states without RECs to 33.

Prof. Yakubu informed the committee members that, the Commission intended to phase out the collapsible transparent ballot boxes and replace them with plastic ones, saying that, there would be no need to use the transparent ballot boxes.

A member of the committee Hon Gbwefi Jonathan had told the commission’s chairman on the need to patronise local manufacturer, but the INEC boss said that as much as the commission was willing to patronise locally made products, it is confronted with the inability of local manufacturers to deliver the required volume within the stipulated short timeframe for elections.

While buttressing his point on why local manufacturers are hard to patronise, he said that, “immediately you try to produce something locally, somebody rushes to register a patent and claims ownership of that idea.

“Right now we have litigations running into trillions of people who said the patent for smart card reader is theirs. And they will get some favourable judgement that we should pay them some fantastic amount.

Earlier, Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Aishatu Dukku emphasised the need for the 2017 budget to reflect public accountability and transparency of the commission.

According to her, “Election management bodies face the formidable challenge of ensuring that stakeholders have trust in the electoral process. The identification and adoption of best practices in electoral framework and administration among nations have resulted in placing countries under pressure to introduce electoral reform measures.

“I am strongly advocating that this electoral reform measures will form part of the budget of INEC. It is important that the budget of INEC be made to show widespread public accountability and transparency of the commission”, she stated.