INEC acknowledges challenges faced during just-concluded presidential election
Written by Joey Shekwonuzhibo on March 6, 2023
Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, has acknowledged challenges that dented last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
Chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, at a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners on Saturday, acknowledged the challenges but said it would work harder to overcome them in the coming gubernatorial and States Houses of assembly elections scheduled for 11 March.
The logistical challenge, which included the late arrival of voting materials to polling units and failure of the BVAS machine to upload results of the election were widespread during the election last week, resulting in Nigerians questioning the credibility of the polls.
Three of the four major political parties in the presidential election, the Peoples Democratic Party, the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, have rejected the results and called for the conduct of another election under a new electoral chair.
Only the APC whose candidate, Bola Tinubu, was declared winner, commended the process.
The PDP and LP have already been granted access to inspect all materials used for the election as they prepare to challenge the conduct of the elections and Tinubu’s victory in court.
Ahead of the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly in June, some senators-elect have begun lobbying for the presidency of the upper chamber.
Aspirants for the top Senate and House of Representatives positions are expected to start declaring interest in their choice positions once the National Assembly resumes from election break on March 14.
Apart from the senate presidency, other positions that will be filled include the speaker of the House of Representatives and deputy senate president as well as the principal offices.
