Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, ( INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has admitted that the Commission experienced glitches in transmitting results through the IReV during the presidential elections.
He acknowledged this while giving a critique of technological innovations deployed during the elections on Monday, at a session with Civil Society Organisations, ( CSOs) on the review of 2023 General Elections.
Professor Yakubu in his clarification also declared that “there was no direct funding or cash support from international development partners.”
He maintained that the development partners “support was totally indirect through civil society organisations and implementing partners working on elections.”
Thanking the civil society organisations and development partners for their enormous support to the Commission during the 2023 General Elections, the INEC Chairman recalled that while 228 groups (190 domestic and 38 foreign) were accredited as observers for the last general elections, only 67 have so far submitted their observation reports to the Commission.
He maintained that the development partners “support was totally indirect through civil society organisations and implementing partners working on elections.”
Thanking the civil society organisations and development partners for their enormous support to the Commission during the 2023 General Elections, the INEC Chairman recalled that while 228 groups (190 domestic and 38 foreign) were accredited as observers for the last general elections, only 67 have so far submitted their observation reports to the Commission.
He said:” On this note, it is appropriate for the Commission to express its appreciation to civil society organisations and development partners for their enormous support to the Commission during the 2023 General Election. This came in the form of technical advice, civic and voter education, organisation of meetings and capacity-building workshops, as well as the publication of documents.
“However, it is necessary to seize thisopportunity to correct the impression in some sections of the public that the Commission received huge sums of money from development partners for the election. On the contrary, and for the avoidance of doubt, the Commission did not receive any direct funding or cash support from international development partners. Rather, their support was totally indirect through civil society organisations and implementing partners working on elections. Indeed, it has been a longstanding policy of the present Commission not to receive direct funding and cash transfers from sources other than the Federal Government of Nigeria. We hope that we shall continue to have this type of productive partnership with civil society and development partners in the future.
“It is in furtherance of this partnership that the Commission accredits observers because the feedback we receive, and their actionable recommendations have been very helpful to the electoral process. For the 2023 General Election, the Commission received 538 requests (504 domestic and 34 foreign) for accreditation as observers. After a thorough evaluation of the requests, only 228 groups (190 domestic and 38 foreign) met the requirements for accreditation. However, so far, only 67 observer groups (62 domestic and five foreign) have so far submitted their observation reports which represents just about 30% of the accredited groups for the election. We urge all accredited observer groups that are yet to submit their reports to do so in earnest.”
Giving a critique of technological innovations deployed during the elections, the INEC Chairman said the accreditations of voters using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), were successful.
Recall that both presidential and national assembly elections were held on the same day.