- INEC faced various challenges in the 2023 general elections, including misconduct by INEC officials and the use of thugs by some political actors
- The INEC chairman stated that the commission has collaborated with the National Assembly, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to improve the electoral process
- Yakubu denied the public’s perception that INEC received large sums of money from development partners for the elections
Prof Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stated that the 2023 general elections faced various challenges, including misconduct by INEC officials and the use of thugs by some political actors.
As you are aware, there were many challenges encountered before and during the elections,” Yakubu said on Monday in Abuja at a meeting with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on the review of the elections. The severe cash and fuel shortages were exacerbated by widespread insecurity.
The impact on our deployment plans, compounded by the behaviour of some of our own field officials, made logistics management especially difficult.” Some political actors’ use of thugs made election day administration difficult in a number of places.
The INEC chairman stated that since the 2019 general elections, the commission has collaborated with the National Assembly, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to improve the electoral process.
He further said;
We were meticulous in our preparations for the elections, and there have been many positive developments in this regard. One area is the repeal and re-enactment of the Electoral Act 2010 into the Electoral Act 2022.
The new law provides a period of 180 days for political parties to conclude their primaries and submit the names of candidates, and the political parties took advantage of it for the 2023 general elections.
Yakubu also stated that the development allowed the commission to begin producing sensitive election materials on time and that all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the 2023 general elections were printed in Nigeria.
He added;
This is the first time in 44 years since the transition to democratic rule in 1979 that this great step was taken and achieved despite the record number of 93.4 million registered voters and over 500 million ballot papers, result sheets, and other documents for the five categories of the main elections and supplementary polls.
He also stated that, while voter accreditation through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was very successful, the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), particularly for the presidential election, encountered a glitch, as explained in the commission’s statement released on February 26, 2023.
He said;
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 elections is part of the ongoing review of the 2023 general elections.
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 denied the public’s perception that INEC received large sums of money from development partners for the elections, stating that, to the contrary, and to avoid doubt, the commission received no direct funding or cash support from international development partners.
He said;
Rather, their support was totally indirect through CSOs and implementing partners working on elections. Indeed, it has been a longstanding policy of the present commission not to receive direct funding and cash transfers from sources other than the Federal Government of Nigeria.
We hope that we shall continue to have this type of productive partnership with the civil societies and development partners in the future.