Civil Society groups and prominent Nigerians have cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to allow manipulation of the 2023 general election.
They warned that with the current level of political consciousness, Nigerians would not tolerate manipulation of next year’s general election.
This followed a pronouncement credited to the electoral umpire that the forthcoming polls would be manually collated.
However, the commissioned has reaffirmed that electronic transmission of election result has come to stay.
It gave the clarification in a statement entitled: “Clarification on Electronic Transmission of Election Result,” signed by Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, in Abuja.
He said: “For clarity, the procedure for result transmission remains the same as in recent governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States. There will be no change in all future elections, including the 2023 general election.
“We wish to reassure Nigerians that the electronic transmission of result has come to stay. It adds to the credibility and transparency of the process when citizens follow polling unit level results on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on real-time on Election Day. There will be no change or deviation in subsequent elections.”
Reacting further, the commission noted that; “the entire gamut of result management is provided for in Sections 60, 62 and 64 of the Electoral Act 2022. In line with the provision of the law, the commission, in April this year, released a detailed clarification of the procedure for transmission, collation and declaration of result which was shared with all stakeholders and uploaded to our website.
“We appeal to all Nigerians to avail themselves of the provisions of the Electoral Act and the commission’s detailed explanation of the procedure and not reach a conclusion on the basis of media headlines,” the commission charged in the statement.
Credit: Daily Sun