Nigeria will hold its gubernatorial election on March 11, but if the election will hold with the glitches of February 25, it will be another failure of electoral process.
To avoid this incidents threatening the nation’s democracy, different Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria have asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address challenges before the next election.
These organisations monitored the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections and have made notes of areas the electoral umpire could work on.
One of such organisations is the Connected Development (CODE). Together with its partners the want INEC to better and keep its promises in the coming governorship and Houses of Assembly elections.
Hamzat Lawal is the Chief Executive Officer of CODE,
He made the call during the presentation of an interim statement on the process and conduct of the election.
According to the CEO, the group deployed observers in polling units across the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the country and the Federal Capital Territory.
The findings made by the group raised concerns about the management of the election, Mr Lawal said.
He urged INEC to ensure swift deployment and early opening of polls, professional conduct of security personnel, and strict adherence to the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
A Second Chance For INEC
The CEO said that the BVAS should be used for biometric accreditation and electronic transmission of results from the polling unit.
Indeed, INEC’s 2023 Election guidelines for the conduct of the election states that the BVAS would be used to transmit result directly from the polling units.
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However, this was not done as there were many technical issues with the BVAS and the results portal.
The group notes that the governorship and state Assembly elections would offer INEC another opportunity to redeem her image.
Many Nigerians have lost faith in INEC after the recently conducted elections but this is another opportunity for them to “earn the trust and confidence of the electorates in our electoral process”.
Short Of Citizen’s Expectations
The group has drawn a conclusion on the conduct of the presidential election and says it has fallen short of citizens’ expectations.
“The 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Election failed to meet the basic threshold of a credible election, as it fell short of Citizen’s expectations, INEC’s assurances and benchmark of international election best practice,” CODE stressed.
Mr Lawal says that the interim statement brought to light some of the discrepancies observed by its observers.
