According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), thugs used by politicians and other elements complicated the 2023 general elections.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, made this statement on Monday at a meeting with CSOs as part of the Commission’s ongoing assessment of the elections held in Nigeria.
In the meeting that took place in the Commission’s conference room in Abuja, Yakubu said that the general public is aware that there were several difficulties before and during the elections.
He said that the ongoing national instability had made the dire financial and gasoline circumstances even worse.
“The behavior of some of our own officers in the field, along with their influence on our deployment plans, made logistical management exceptionally difficult.
The INEC chief said that “the use of thugs by some political actors made election day administration difficult in a number of places.”
The purpose of Monday’s meeting, according to Yakubu, was to give greater attention to this year’s elections via reflection, stocktaking, review, and assessment.
The INEC chairman continued by saying that in his opinion, this is one of the finest methods to keep the voting process from deteriorating.
The Commission, he continued, “welcomes varied viewpoints concerning the election in so far as their objective is to enhance the future conduct of elections and to deepen our democracy, as I indicated on multiple times since we began the review sessions three weeks ago.
We have collaborated with the National Assembly, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to strengthen the election process since the 2019 General Election.
“We took great care in our election preparations, and there have been a lot of good things that have happened. The Electoral Act of 2010 being repealed and then reenacted as the Electoral Act of 2022 is one such place.
Political parties took advantage of the new law’s 180-day window to finish their primaries and submit their list of candidates for the 2023 general election, according to Yakubu.
He said that doing so allowed INEC to start creating the crucial election materials in plenty of time.
The head of INEC then said that he was pleased to announce that all critical and non-sensitive documents for the 2023 General Election have been printed exclusively in Nigeria.
He added that despite the record number of 93.4 million registered voters and more than 500 million ballots, result sheets, and other documents for the five categories of the main elections and supplementary polls, this was the first time in 44 years since the transition to democratic rule in 1979 that this step was taken and accomplished.
Yakubu said that the 2023 General Election went off without a delay due to the lack of materials for the first time in the previous four election cycles.
Additionally, he said that for the first time since the original delimitation exercise in 1996, the commission was able to increase voter access to polling places.
“Similarly, we introduced many technology-based innovations, including the physical registration and online pre-registration of voters using the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED, the various portals for the nomination of candidates, party agents, and the accreditation of observers and the media,” the official said.
“We also gathered and published information on the distribution of voters by handicap in addition to age and employment.
For specific groups of voters with disabilities, the INEC chairman said, “we also tried to provide such inclusivity materials as braille jackets and magnifying glasses within the limits of available resources.”
While the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was very effective at accrediting voters, the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), particularly for the presidential election, experienced a glitch, according to the statement made public by the Commission on February 26, 2023.
He remarked, “The Commission would reserve its comments for the time being as it is aware that this matter is currently the subject of litigation.”
“However, the effectiveness of the technology used for the election is being evaluated as part of the general election in 2023.
