INEC overcomes IReV hitches, parties trade words over intimidation

The 2023 elections came and went, GIFT HABIB compares the electoral processes of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections and the March 18 governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections

The much-anticipated second phase of the general elections in Nigeria was held on Saturday, barely three weeks after Nigerians came out to vote for the next president of Nigeria.

The governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections were earlier scheduled for March 11, alongside two National Assembly elections suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Enugu and Edo States.

For the first time since 2011, the presidential and National Assembly elections in 2023 have not been completely postponed.


However, it was not different from previous elections as it was marred by violence in some states, widespread delays in the commencement of polling units, late arrival of election officials, snatching of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System machines, and intimidation of registered voters by thugs, technical difficulties in using BVAS, and delays in uploading results to the results portal.

With the approved N305bn for the conduct of the 2023 general elections and several assurances by INEC for credible, free, and fair elections, the electoral process could not be delivered.

During elections, polls were scheduled to open at 8.30 am and close at 2.30 pm the same day.


However, a report released by Yiaga Africa showed that election officials had arrived at only 27 per cent of polling units by 7.30 am.

Also, a think tank, the Centre for Democracy and Development, observed the late arrival of election officials in most of the polling units its observers visited.

For instance, at polling unit 023, Alhaji Kukawa, in the Lawan Bukar area of Maiduguri metropolis, INEC officials arrived at 10.42 am. The venue is the polling unit of the All Progressives Congress vice presidential candidate, Kashim Shettima.

Similar delays were also reported in the Federal Capital Territory, Bayelsa, Lagos, Rivers, Taraba, Edo, and Cross River States.

However, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, claimed that the late arrival of officials was due to the “perennial insecurity in the country.”

Also, in some parts of the country, issues relating to logistics delayed the arrival of election materials and officials, which marred the voting exercise. Some voters lamented that INEC officials brought the wrong BVAS to their polling units.

Violence disrupted the voting process in some parts of the country. It was reported that thugs stopped voting midway in Elegushi, the Ikate area of Lekki, and other parts of Lagos on Saturday.

In some polling units in Oyo, Lagos, Borno, and Kogi, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development observers reported incidences of BVAS malfunctioning, leading to difficulties in accrediting voters on February 25.

CJID noted that network fluctuations hindered the work of election officers at PU 009 in Rivers State, which resulted in agitation among voters.

It was also learnt that some residents of Sokoto State, especially in the Goronyo Local Government Area of the state, lamented over the failure experienced with BVAS.

Aside from the poor function of the BVAS, over eight of them were snatched in Delta, Katsina, Lagos, etc. Once again, Mahmood said they were quickly replaced to allow voting to continue.

INEC received backlash from political parties, observers, individuals, and various interest groups for failing to immediately upload polling unit results to the portal prior to the collation.

Notably, paragraph 38 of the INEC regulations and guidelines for 2023 makes electronic transmission of results and their upload to IReV mandatory.

The paragraph requires that when voting and announcement of results have been completed at a polling unit, the Presiding Officer “(1) must electronically transmit the result of the polling unit to INEC’s collation system; (2) must use the BVAs to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A result sheet to the INEC Result Viewing Portal; and (3) [must thereafter] take the BVAS and the original copies of all forms in a tamper-evident envelope to the RA/Ward Collation Officer in the presence of security agents. Polling agents may accompany the PO to the registration areas or ward collation centres.”

However, INEC claimed that technical challenges with its system were responsible for the delay in uploading the election results. The delay caused opposing parties to reject the electoral process that made the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, the President-Elect, as declared by INEC.

Some political parties and individuals relied on the glitch to demand the cancellation of the results.

The INEC Chairman admitted after a review of performances with his Resident Electoral Commissioners from the February 25 elections that there were hitches.

He noted that the elections were painstakingly done, but they came with issues ranging from technology to delays by election officials to the attitudes of the agents of political parties, among others.

Yakubu stated that a lot of lessons have been learnt from the presidential elections ahead of the governorship and state Assembly elections.

Going into the March 18 elections, INEC said that its result-viewing portal which suffered glitches during the presidential and National Assembly elections was up and running and would be deployed in the governorship poll.

The commission assured that election officials would arrive on time and the elections would be free, fair, and credible.