Chairmen of Political Parties, CSOs Condemn Call for Sack of INEC Boss

* Say INEC’s technological innovations reinforced credibility of 2023 Polls 

The Civil Society Political Roundtable has condemned the call for the sack of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood.

This formed part of resolutions reached at the end of a roundtable put together by the Civil Society Organizations Central Coordinating Council, which is the highest organ of the civil society community in Nigeria in collaboration with chairmen of political parties. 

The political roundtable, while passing a unanimous vote of confidence on the INEC chairman and commending the introduction of technology in the accreditation and transmission of results, called on the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act 2022 to enable the deployment of technology in the result collation and announcement processes.

The communiqué of the roundtable also frowned on what it call stereotyped attack on the INEC national chairman and rejected the calls for his sack which the roundtable said was an expression of ill-will and done in bad faith. 

It further questioned the reports of the European Union Election Observer Mission and that of the Civil Society Situation for being narrow and not representative of what actually happened at the nearly 180,000 polling units in the country, wondering how a few observers deployed by both groups could have turned in credible reports.

The roundtable further called on the newly appointed security chiefs in the country to give the INEC leadership full support to ensure the November governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States are free, fair and credible. 

The communique was signed by Mr. Kenneth Udenze, National Chairman, Action Alliance; Mr. Uchenna Nnadi, National Chairman, Action Peoples Party; Chief Isaac Udeh, National Chairman, National Rescue Movement; Chief Dan Nwanyawu, National Chairman, Zenith Labour Party; Alhaji Lawal Nalado, National Chairman, Accord; and Ezenwa Nwagwu, Chairman, Partners for Electoral Reforms.

Reading the communiqué on behalf of the political parties and the candidates, Udenze said the roundtable observed that the diversity of political parties in the National Assembly was a clear evidence that the elections were free, fair and credible. 

The roundtable observed that in the House of Representatives, members from minority parties are in the majority in the House, showing a truly representative House as voted by the people. 

The roundtable agreed that this speaks directly to the integrity and credibility of the election and commended the commission for performing well in this regard.

It criticized the election observation report of the European Union (EU), saying it falls below standard of any report by any credible agency on election observation mission.  

It also wondered how the EU could rely on the report of a few observers deployed in a handful of urban centres to be representative of the almost 180,000 polling units in the country.

The communique read further: “The Political Roundtable reviewed the technological innovations introduced by the commission including the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) and commended both innovations as having helped to strengthen the integrity of the elections.

“The Political Roundtable reviewed the pre-election internal discipline mechanism adopted by INEC which helped reduce internal wrangling within the political parties and the tendency for factionalization of the political parties.”