Nigerians in Diaspora Decry INEC’s Poor Conduct of Presidential Election

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

The Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) has expressed disappointment over the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit electronically the presidential election results into its server from the polling units as promised.

It noted that, “the inability of INEC to fulfill the anticipated electronic transmission of the results of the elections to the INEC server was very disappointing, and this greatly punctured the trust of the voters in the sanctity and transparency of the electoral process.”

Chairman of NIDO, America, Dr. Ezekiel Macham, and his Europe’s counterparts, Dr. Bashir Obasekola, disclosed this at the weekend in Jos, during a press conference while presenting the 2023 election observers mission of NIDO on the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Members who joined the press conference via zoom urged INEC to improve on the electoral process before the Saturday, March 11 2023 governorship election and ensure Diaspora voting in the subsequent elections.

NIDO said, “INEC should urgently reverse this trend for the sake of sustainability of our democracy. INEC should maximise the potential for transparency that BVAS and IReV provide.”

Macham acknowledged INEC’s determination to bring on board new innovations with a view to improving the electoral process, but said NIDO was displeased with the systematic failure of the Commission to ensure instantaneous transmission of results to IReV at the conclusion of voting at the polling units as earlier planned.

He said, “It is very important that as we move into the future, INEC must seek an amendment to the Electoral Act to allow electronic transmission and automated collation through direct submission of results in numerical format from the polling units into the INEC server.
“The submitted results must be free of human intervention, which occurs by way of the manual addition of numbers. The automated tallied results should be alive and accessible to the nation as the voting progresses.

“The scanned hard copy evidence of Form EC8A transmitted via BVAS will be used only to back-up the raw data submitted from the polling units.”
Macham also decried late arrival of election materials in some polling units across the country and said voting period was grossly inadequate, observing that six hours was not enough for citizens to exercise their franchise.

He also observed that the proficiency of INEC ad-hoc staff in some polling units across the country fell short of the expectations of Nigerians and called for the usage of more experienced personnel in the subsequent elections.

He described the introduction of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) into the electoral process as noble, adding that it helped in reducing cases of manual manipulation of figures and the problem of over-voting.

“We advise that INEC and all pertinent stakeholders take urgent action to address the lapses identified in this report with a view to improving the conduct of the subsequent elections, including the upcoming March 11, 2023 Governorship and States Assembly elections,” he added.