Lessons INEC must learn from presidential, National Assembly elections

Days after what the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, promised would be the best election in Nigeria, there are widespread claims that the poll did not meet minimum standards for credibility.

Initial reports from many domestic and international observer groups noted that the election failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians.

Many are disappointed that INEC has enough time, resources and experience to prepare for the election. From the Electoral Act to the use of election technology such as the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), the electoral commission seems to have everything it needs for the job.

However, the election witnessed challenges, especially logistical issues which the commission admitted was always a problem and promised to address.

The two main opposition candidates, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labor Party (LP), have started the process to challenge the results of the presidential election in the election petition court. He has rejected the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the President-elect.

On Saturday, INEC will conduct another election in other constituencies. Governorship elections in 28 states and House of Assembly elections in all 36 states of the federation are expected to be more fierce than the February 25 polls.

But the events of the last two Saturdays increased the tension in politics and made politicians and political parties split in this last election.

In order to avoid hiccups in the first round of elections, INEC must improve in some areas.

Logistics: Arrival of election officials, voting materials

While the commission admitted logistics was always a major problem, it failed to promise to organize better in the February 25 poll. Election officials and sensitive materials were late to some polling units, which led to the late start of voting in the affected polling units.

“The election day process was fraught with widespread logistical challenges that resulted in delayed arrival of polling officials and delayed opening of polling units across the country especially in the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones,” said YIAGA Africa, which deployed over 3,014 observers to 1,507 polling units in all 774 local government areas (LGAs), in 36 states and the FCT.

The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, weeks before the February 25 polls, approached the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to request that cash be made available to the commission to pay for logistics, which Mr. Emefiele agreed to. for.

He also met with the Head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to seek the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) for election duty vehicles, which NNPC also promised to deliver.

INEC is said to have reached an understanding with transport unions, including the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) for sensitive movements. materials and election duty officials.

Although the CBN guarantee provided cash to pay for logistics and provision of PMS for election duty vehicles by NNPCL, drivers appear on Election Day grumbled and demanded to be paid in cash before sending officials and materials to the polling unit.

Which is it: Electronic Transmission or Manual Transmission?

Perhaps one of INEC’s greatest omissions in the election was its failure to transmit election results directly from polling units to IReV for real-time monitoring by citizens and political parties.

The request from the PDP agent at the National Assembly Centre, which started as a light request, turned into a chain of events that would affect the citizens’ assessment of the election.

It didn’t help that the commission was almost 24 hours later witnessed some technical difficulties with uploading the results. What followed were allegations of compromise by the electoral commission and the subsequent boycott of the collection of results by the PDP and LP.

This led to one of the biggest post-election conversations, whether the Electoral Act required the commission to collect results electronically.

While a quick review of the law should resolve this, it has not. The meaning of that section of the Electoral Act seems to depend on who interprets it, and on which side they stand.

When the commission has said, several times, before that election it doesn’t come back in real-time electronic transmission of results, INEC has not yet committed to post the issue on February 25.

Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines

The Election Law does not specifically mandate the transmission of electronic results, but states in Section 60(5), that “the presiding officer shall transmit the results including the total number of accredited voters and voting results in the manner prescribed by the Commission.”

At Regulations and Guidelines for Elections as signed by the Chairman of INEC on May 24, 2022, but the commission directs the Electronic Transmission of Results and Upload of Results to IReV in Paragraph 38.

But Paragraphs 53, 54 and 55, which deal with the compilation of presidential results at local, state and national levels, go further to document manual and electronic procedures for the compilation of results.

Paragraph 38 reads: “After the completion of all the election procedures and results of the Voting Unit, the Presiding Officer shall:

“(i) Electronically transmit or transfer the results from the Polling Unit, directly to the collection system as prescribed by the Commission. (ii) Use BVAS to upload the scanned copy of the EC8A to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), as prescribed by the Commission. ( iii) Take the BVAS and the original copy of each form in a clear envelope to the Registration Area / Ward Collection Officer, in the company of the Security Agent. The Polling Agent can accompany the Leader to the RA/Kelurahan Collection Center.”

But the guidelines do not state that electronic transmission of results replaces manual compilation results. Paragraphs 53, 54, 55, to collect the presidential results at the local government, state and national level, record the results of manual and electronic transmission.

For example, Paragraph 53 of the guidelines states that the Regional Government/Regional Council Collection Officer for the Presidential Election must:

“Obtain all original copies of Form EC8B from the Area Registration Officer/Ward Collector along with other materials and reports relating to the election, including Form EC40(G) if applicable; (ii) Compile the results of the Presidential election by entering the votes cast by each Political Party in the original copy of Form EC8B to Form EC8C in numbers and words. (iii) Add RA / Ward results to get LGA summary; (iv) Cross-check the total and entries in EC8C with Secretariat Collation Support and Result Verification System (CSRVS).

“…(xii) Electronically send or transfer the results directly to the next level of collation, as prescribed by the Commission; and (xiii) take the original copy of Form EC8C to the President’s Collection Officer at the State Collection Center along with other election-related materials and reports, including Form EC40G(I).

Paragraph 54 mandates that the State/FCT Collecting Officer for the Presidential election “shall” send the original copy of Form EC8C from the LGA/Area Council Collecting Officer, transfer the votes cast by each Political Party to Form EC8D, and add. LGAs / Area Councils collate the results to get a State overview.

It added that the state collation officer will: “Send or transfer the result directly to the next level of collation as prescribed by the Commission; and (xiii) Take the original copy of Form EC8D together with other materials and reports related to the election returned by the LGA Council Collection Officer /Territory to the National Collection Center, in an indestructible envelope.

The Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, will send the original copy of the EC8D Form from the State Collation Officer, collect the votes scored by each party from the EC8D Form received from the State Collation Officer and enter the votes scored by each Political Party in both figures and words.

“Cross-check the totals and entries in Form EC8D(A) with the Collation Support and Result Verification System (CSRVS) Secretariat for accuracy of computation,” paragraph 55 of the guidelines.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented new journalists to report on issues that are not being covered around the world.