Organisation of the Electoral Commission
The Electoral Commission is headed by a Chairman appointed by the government. The Chairman oversees the work of the Commission and the activities of the members. The Chairman disciplines erring or disobedient staff and ensures the prosecution of anybody who committed electoral offences. The Chairman interprets the electoral laws and declares the winner at the end of the election. Finally, the Chairman controls the finance of the Commission and approves the recruitment and appointment of the lower officers of the commission.
Below the Chairman at the National Level is the Secretary of the Commission.
The Secretary
The following are the duties of the Secretary
- In charge of correspondences
- Head of personnel unit of the commission
- Responsible and accountable to the Chairman for day to day running of the commission
- Queries erring staff and recommends appropriate punishment to the Chairman
- Acts as Chairman of the recruitment committee
- Receives the election results from states at the end of election processes
Characteristics Of Electoral Commission
The essential of a good electoral commission are:
Political Neutrality and Non-Partisan: A good electoral commission must be impartial and must not take side or show favouritism to any political party or group or aspirants or contestants.
Integrity of the members: Members of an electoral commission must be men and women of probity, impeccable and proven integrity. In other words, they must be people who can show transparent honesty and accountability and must not be corrupt or take bribe.
Freedom and Independence of Action: An electoral commission must be free to perform its duties without fear or favour. It must not be teleguided or influenced by the government or any group in the discharge of its duties.
Security of Tenure: Members of the electoral commission must have fixed term of office and fixed salary. Secondly, they must not be subject to frequent and arbitrary dismissal from office.
Salary should be charged on the consolidated fund: The salary of members of the electoral commission should be paid from the consolidated fund. In other words, members of the electoral commission must be well paid and their salary should not be delayed and they should be given all the necessary incentives in order to prevent them from being corrupt or enticed by rich people.
Duties Of Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission perform the following roles
- Conduct elections
- Registration of Voters
- Constituency delimitation (division of constituencies)
- Supervision of erection of polling booths
- Appointment of presiding and returning officers
- Registration of political parties
- Compilation of voters register
- Screening and registration of political aspirants, (candidate) who will contest the general election from each of the political parties
- Provision of Security on the day of the election
- Disqualification of certain people from contesting and voting
- Announcement of the election result immediately after the election (declaration of winners)
- Verification of Claims made by political parties for purposes of registration and issuing clearance certificates to certain category of political aspirants or contestants.
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Problems of Electoral Commission
Lack of Adequate Autonomy: The electoral commissions are partially independent. The members of the commission are not given free hand by the Government officials and influencial people in the country to do their job.
Most of the officials of the commission are corrupt: Some of the officials of the electoral commission take money from the political parties in order to help these parties to rig election e.g. gerrymandering
Inadequate Funding: The commission is not adequately funded and this is why they cannot recruit high calibre staff and cannot provide sufficient or adequate electoral materials on the day of election.
The commission is not provided with adequate security to carry out its job. On the voting day and in the distribution of electoral materials, as well as counting the votes, there is no adequate security to provide the necessary protection.
Lack of security of tenure: The job of the electoral commission is not a career one. Any member of the electoral commission can be thrown out from his job at anytime. This greatly affects the dedication of the workers on duty.