Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has come out to dismiss the insinuations that it received huge financial support from development partners as it concerns the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
The Chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, who spoke at a meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on the review of the poll, on Monday, in Abuja, said the clarification became necessary following the widespread impression that the commission received huge financial support from development partners for the polls.
‘For the avoidance of doubt, the commission did not receive any direct funding or cash support from international development partners. Rather, their support was totally indirect through civil society organisations and implementing partners working on elections.
‘On this note, it is appropriate for the commission to express its appreciation to civil society organisations and development partners for their enormous support to the commission during the 2023 general election. This came in the form of technical advice, civic and voter education, organisation of meetings and capacity-building workshops, as well as the publication of documents.’
Yakubu, however, frowned at the deployment of thugs by some political actors during the polls, lamenting how that made election-day administration difficult in a number of places.
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He also expressed unhappiness over failure of a greater percentage of CSOs to submit their reports, explaining that only 67 observer groups (62 domestic and five foreign) have submitted their observation reports, representing just about 30 per cent of the accredited groups for the election.
Yakubu also spoke about plans for the upcoming bye-elections and preparations for the off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states scheduled for Saturday November 11.
He reconfirmed the impression in many quarters that it did not upload real-time the presidential election results for the February 25, 2023 poll across the country.
It also lamented that the impact on deployment plans was compounded by the behaviour of some of its officials in the field, which made logistics management particularly challenging.
Though the CSOs demanded that the electoral umpire boss explained to Nigerians why the glitch was peculiar to the presidential election results, Yakubu, however, hid under the excuses that the matter is still being litigated in the court.
On the performance of technology deployed for the election, Yakubu said: ‘As you are aware, there were many challenges encountered before and during the elections. The severe cash and fuel situations were compounded by the perennial insecurity nationwide.
‘Their impact on our deployment plans, compounded by the behaviour of some of our own officials in the field, made logistics management particularly challenging. The deployment of thugs by some political actors made election day administration difficult in a number of places.
‘While voter accreditation using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was very successful, the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), especially for the presidential election, encountered a glitch as explained in our statement released by the commission on 26th February 2023. The commission is aware that this matter is currently the subject of litigation and would reserve its comments for now. Nevertheless, the performance of the technology deployed for the election is part of the ongoing review of the 2023 general election.
‘It will form an integral part of the comprehensive report that will serve as a basis for further engagement with stakeholders focusing on specific actions necessary for the improvement of future elections and electoral activities in Nigeria,’ he said.
Many Nigerians have criticised the commission for the non-transmission of result from the last election.