It is not fair to judge the entire performance of the commission on the basis of a glitch in the result upload for the presidential election – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has addressed the glitch encountered during the upload of the February 25 presidential election, emphasizing that Nigerians should not judge the entire commission based on this incident.

Barry Andrews, the EU Chief Observer, expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and operational failures of INEC during the February 25 election, which significantly damaged public confidence in the commission. Although some corrective measures were implemented for the March 18 governorship elections, trust was not fully restored, leading civil societies to call for an independent audit of the entire electoral process. The EU observation team provided six priority recommendations.

In response to the final report on the 2023 general elections submitted by the European Union Election Observation Mission, Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner, urged Nigerians to refrain from judging the entire performance of the commission solely based on the challenge faced during the upload of the presidential election results.

Okoye emphasized that political parties have been empowered by law to have their representatives at polling units, allowing them to obtain primary evidence of the results. He clarified that relying solely on result uploads for evidence in court cases is not accurate, as parties have access to the original polling unit results, which are then consolidated at the collation centers along with the use of the BVAS machine.