FixPolitics’ Executive Director has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of betraying Nigerians’ faith by allegedly failing to upload the general election results from February 25, 2023, via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System in real time, as it had promised before the poll.
In a statement on Thursday, Tony Ubani stated that the commission’s officials had previously given numerous guarantees that they were prepared for the elections thanks to the deployment of the BVAS.
He also charged INEC with being unprepared for the elections.
He said, “At a press conference in November 2022, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, assured Nigerians that the commission would upload polling results to its portal at the polling unit, immediately after voting, adding that citizens would have access to these results in real time. Yakubu was conscious of growing public concern about the sincerity, transparency, and commitment of the commission to credible elections, in which the votes of citizens will be respected.
The electoral reforms and lessons that were said to have been learnt were not applied, and as an electoral body, it was substantially less prepared than it stated, according to the performance and controversy surrounding the results.
Ubani claims that the commission promised to upload the results from the polling place and that the public would have immediate access to those results as they were posted.
In November, Yakubu had said that the program could not reverse course and weaken itself since this technology had become ingrained in society.
“We will upload polling unit results from the polling units,” he promised Nigerians. The results will be accessible to the public. Who are we really serving, after all? the people. How can we deny voters access to the outcomes of the election they cast their votes in at the polling place?
“I can guarantee you that the general elections in 2023 will be the finest we’ve ever had, and we’re dedicated to having Nigerians’ votes decide the results. Nothing additional or less.
According to FixPolitics, this assurance, along with a number of others provided by INEC, gave Nigerians the confidence they needed to register to receive their Permanent Voter Cards.
The public even consented to the additional cost of the closure of tertiary institutions as a price to be paid in exchange for INEC’s guarantees of a vote that would be valid. Many residents used their right to vote after returning from abroad with the anticipation that the election would be open, free, and count their votes, according to Ubani.
Yet, he bemoaned the fact that since the polls on February 25, the nation had been inundated with reports, grievances, and protests from people, candidates, party officials, civil society organizations, the media, local and foreign observers, and well-meaning Nigerians.
Voters that arrived at the polling places early were irritated because INEC failed to open the polling places on time, and many voters and INEC employees had trouble finding their polling places for several hours.
The failure and refusal of INEC to upload presidential election results, particularly in real time, to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, the complete lack of transparency in INEC’s procedures, and the failure to follow its own regulations and processes, he said, were the three complaints that cut across the majority of the different voices of dissent.
This betrayal, he continued, has caused the public to dislike INEC and raise concerns about the validity of the vote and its implications for the entire procedure.
