Redeem Yourself in State Elections, Group Charges INEC

Following the controversies trailing the 2023 presidential election, the Transition Monitoring Group has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to redeem its image by ensuring a free and fair elections at the state levels next week.

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) in a statement issued and signed by its chairman, Auwal Ibrahim Musa “Rafsanjani” had noted that the presidential polls held last week in which the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was declared the winner, was marred by irregularities that raised suspicions of “human interference and manipulation of results.”

The group stated that the conduct of the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections were poor, especially the insistence of the commission to jettison immediate result transmission from polling units across the country.

“This singular act has given room for suspicion of human interference and manipulation of results and could truncate the will of the people as freely expressed at the poll.

“The 2023 general elections were expected to usher in a much more improved and digitized electoral process in Nigeria. It is in this regard that INEC received an unprecedented whooping sum of N355 billion to conduct a credible election. Despite this humongous financial commitment, and the incredible support received from the international community and civil society organisations, INEC failed to deliver on a straightforward mandate of meeting the expectations of Nigerians,” they said.

Whilst noting that the general conduct of the election across the country was peaceful in most parts, as voting occurred without recourse to violence, TMG in the statement described as scandalous, the disregard for the secrecy of the ballot as demonstrated by the president, who held up his ballot paper on live television for all to see the party he voted for.

The group also stressed its support for its digitization of the electoral process in Nigeria and called for sustenance and advancement of the process.

According to the group, this widespread report of failure  to transmit polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal “contravenes Section 50 of the Electoral Act 2022, which aims to minimize human interference and manipulation of polling unit results.”