Partisan RECs hurt 2023 polls badly, INEC source admits.
It is no longer news that controversies and disputations are dogging the outcome of the 2023 general elections. More than 500 cases at the various election petition tribunals attest to that.
Issues from Adamawa State where the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr Hudu Yunusa Ari, usurped the powers of the Chief Returning Officer, Mele Lamido, and unilaterally announced the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governorship Candidate, Senator Aishatu Dahiru, as the winner, when collation had not been concluded, are still raising dust in the polity.
Although the National headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, acted swiftly by annulling Ari’s action, suspending him, writing the Presidency to get him sacked, and getting Mele Lamido to conclude the collation and announce Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate as winner, the matter has raised debates on how to safe Nigeria’s democratic process.
INEC National Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and the commission have come under hammer for the way the elections panned in spite of repeated assurances of credible polls with the introduction of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, e-transmission of results to the INEC Results Viewing, IReV portal realtime from the polling booths.
Defending Yakubu on the flaws in the polls, an inside source in the INEC agreed that there were glitches in the electronic transmission of presidential election results, he blamed RECs, politicians, and some stakeholders for most of the drawbacks.
Insisting that Yakubu was determined to use technology to drive credible polls via BVAS and IREV, the source said some politicians and parties worked extra hard in concert with some RECs to undermine the process.
SOURCE: VANGUARD NEWSPAPER
