Mohammed Haruna reveals INEC has received more than 50% of the funds needed for the 2027 general elections.

The Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, INEC, Mohammed Haruna, has disclosed that the commission has received more than ?500 billion, representing over 50 per cent of the funds budgeted for the conduct of the 2027 general elections.

Haruna, who spoke during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, on election preparedness and funding, said the release of the funds was a welcome development, although INEC remains concerned about outstanding debts from previous elections and the timely release of the remaining allocation needed to fully execute its plans.

“Where we are now is that we’ve received more than half the fund. About 500 About 500 and something-billion. More than 50% of it.

“There of course, there are still some there are still some problems. We are owing from the last general election because we didn’t get the funding for the last general election. We were we are owing contractors, some six or so billion, and then from the statutory allocation of 140 something billion for that year, we still owed over 20 billion. I think it was in this month that the first 500 billion was released, a week or two weeks ago,” he revealed.

Responding to concerns over delayed funding, Haruna said INEC had already begun preparations for the 2027 elections, including plans to procure additional BVAS devices and other election materials needed for the polls.

“Of course, we are concerned. Everybody is concerned. I mean, the bottom line is the funds have to be there. So, it’s a good thing, very good news that at least more than half has been released. But even ahead of that, there are a lot of preparations that we have been doing. For instance, the Director of ICT, Information and Communication Technology, and one other person, they were away in China, to finalize the importation of BVAS. And you know, that is the Biometric Voter Registration System, which is central to our election now.

“As I said, in anticipation of even this, we were doing a lot of preparation,” Haruna reiterated.

Haruna, however, said the bigger challenge facing the commission was the slow pace of candidate submissions by political parties. According to him, only a few parties had submitted the names of their candidates despite the ongoing primary elections, noting that INEC had put measures in place to ensure that only candidates who emerged from monitored primaries could be uploaded to its system.

“I think the main problem we probably have are the parties themselves. In the sense that, you know, primaries this is the season for primaries. We all have our processes. They knew they have conducted their primaries, they’re supposed to upload or to submit their candidates. As at now, I don’t think more than maybe three or four political parties have submitted names of their candidates.

“So, what we’ve done now is to create a system whereby if the names are different from what we’ve uploaded, they won’t even be able to upload because they’re different from what we have. Of course, they have their own internal review mechanisms. When they do that, and they, of course, explain to us, because as a result of this review, it’s now Mr. X, not Mr. Z. Of course, it’s their internal affairs.

“INEC will allow that. In any case, there’s even a time for substitution,” he said.

Addressing complaints about difficulties accessing INEC’s voter registration portal, Haruna attributed the challenge largely to server and network issues. He, however, assured prospective voters that the commission’s BVAS technology can operate offline when necessary, allowing voter registration and accreditation processes to continue without disruption.

“The problem, of course, has to do with servers. But when it comes to the election itself, there are ways to cure some of these problems. Our BVAS are versatile. When you go to register to vote, we can do it offline. So, if we see that we have problems, we often remove the internal SIM card so that a voter can register, you can get accredited, no problem at all with that. So, the main problem is the service,” he explained. (AriseNews TV)

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