Former Bayelsa State Governor and Senator representing Bayelsa West, Seriake Dickson, has urged a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s electoral system to promote greater transparency and accountability in the nation’s polls.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, the 23rd of October, 2025, the lawmaker, who also serves on the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, emphasized the need for meaningful reforms that would make the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) more answerable to the public.
Dickson argued that candidates often face difficulties proving electoral irregularities since they have no control over the electoral process managed solely by INEC.
He explained that one of the proposals being debated in the ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act seeks to transfer the burden of proof in election disputes from candidates or political parties to INEC itself.
READ ALSO: Diri, Fubara, Dauda, Dickson, Others to Be Honoured with First Daily Excellence Awards
According to him, “Elections should be moments where we rediscover ourselves as a nation and celebrate what is best about us, not moments where people kill, maim, or write non-existent figures to win without the people’s mandate.
“The burden of proof in electoral matters must shift to INEC. That is where it rightly and properly belongs. We should not subject it to the normal evidential rule that says, he who alleges must prove,” he said.