The National Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced a break till 6pm on Sunday less than 30 minutes after it formally opened.
Recall that the centre opened at about 1pm on Sunday afternoon contrary to 12 noon time earlier announced by the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Saturday.
The Chief Returning Officer of the Federation, who doubles as the INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu, declared the break over the absence of presidential election results from 36 States of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja).
He said by 6:00 pm, it was expected that some results would have arrived at the INEC National Collation Centre for the formal announcement.
Yakubu also set certain ground rules for the collation of election results, advising political parties and media to only draw their figures from INEC.
On the delay in the collation of results, Yakubu said the process has to go through four levels.
“The collated ward level results are tallied and collated at the 774 local government areas nationwide.
“Thereafter, they are tallied and collated in each of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The collated figures for each state and the Federal Capital Territory are finally collated here in Abuja where the announcement of the outcome of the election will be made by the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, who also doubles are the Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Federation.”
“The collation of presidential election results will be done at four levels — first at the 8,889 wards, then at the 774 local government areas, then the Resident Electoral Commissioners at the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory will submit the votes per candidate in Abuja.
He noted that the collation center would remain open until the final determination of the 2023 presidential election, “there may be interlude or adjournments.”
“As we await the arrival of the State Collation Officers for the Presidential Election (SCOPE), will now take a break and resume at 6pm. We are certain that by 6pm, one or two of the SCOPEs will arrive with the results. So we begin the process of collation. Thank you very much. We will resume at 6pm,” he said.
He added that this is a duty he is privileged to perform, adding that it would be done at the National Collation Centre.
