Nigeria’s election umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced plans to manually collate and transmit results from the upcoming general elections scheduled to hold in a few days.
Making the announcement at a press briefing in the capital of Abuja on Sunday, the National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, noted that the decision to use this system stemmed from the fact that the electoral law amendment that would have enabled this was not accepted by the President.
The electoral bill amendment included new innovations to improve the efficiency of, not just the INEC staff, but create easier ways to cast, collate and transmit votes.
“INEC has been consistent in following the processes and procedures in collating and transmitting results. If, tomorrow, the National Assembly changes the laws, we will adopt e-collation and transmission of results.”
Speaking on behalf of the Commission, Okoye further explained that over 91 political parties have signed up for the elections, reiterating the fact that there are over 84 million registered voters. A further breakdown from the Commissioner revealed that the elections will take place in 1,558 constituencies and the 774 local government areas in the country.
While the presidential elections will be contested by a total of 73 candidates in the same number of constituencies and local government areas noted above, the governorship elections, on the other hand, will be contested by a total of 1,068 candidates in 29 states across the federation.
Okoye also defended the Commission against naysayers, especially over the allegation that the Commission had colluded with the current government to provide northern leaders with voter’s cards, which were distributed among voters within the region. While denying this infraction, he also called for INEC staff to conduct themselves properly, explaining that any officer caught receiving bribes will be the prosecuted and sentenced.
The Commissioner ended his address by reiterating the administration’s dedication to free, fair and credible elections.
