From Lawrence Njoku, Enugu

Iwu, who spoke to reporters yesterday in Enugu said the commission had no hand in furthering the tenure of present elected officials.

He stated that the constitution was clear on the tenure of office of the present officials, adding that the commission would conduct elections in May 2007 in line with the 1999 Constitution.

He also defended his appointment as INEC chief, stressing: "I was not appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo. He only nominated me and I went to the Senate where I was screened and found worthy. The Senate could have as well rejected me if I did not meet the requirements. I was presented to the Council of State and no member said no.

"The mandate I hold is to conduct elections for the country such that Nigerians will feel happy and fulfilled participating in the exercise. That is what I have sworn to uphold. INEC is sufficiently independent, the only thing we need is financial autonomy. We are independent in terms of operation and we have the capacity to increase the spread and that is why we are fully determined to give to Nigerians the most credible elections in 2007,".he added.

He explained that though the amended Electoral draft bill which the Commission submitted to the House for the conduct of the 2007 polls had not been passed into law, the Commission had options which could still enable it conduct polls which would be acceptable to Nigerians.

The INEC boss stated that already, the commission had carried out enlightenment campaigns in most parts of the country, especially on the introduction of the Electronic Voting System (EVS) which it intends to use for the on coming elections. He added that Adhoc staff were being engaged as well as overhauling the operational machinery of the commission to enable them contribute effectively to the success of the elections.

On the EVS, Iwu said that there was no going back as according to him, those criticising it were afraid that the device would not allow them to rig elections.

He said: "People are not comfortable with the EVS because it is rig proof. There is no other better ways of conducting a transparent election at the moment without the EVS. So we are not going back on the exercise. The device will help us determine anomalies and where they are committed".

He said that the device though electrically operated works like the GSM, adding that once the votings were concluded, results would be immediately announced at the polling centre.

He said the commission would not tolerate any iota of violence during the polls, adding that a lot of constituencies would be cancelled or declared "inconclusive." He also warned politicians to beware of acts capable of truncating the rules of the exercise.