The Independent National Electoral Commission on Friday assured Nigerians that results of the 2023 general election would be collated transparently.
The commission assured that it would continue to upload polling unit results to its results viewing portal as it did in the Osun and Ekiti governorship elections.
It also assured that Nigerians would be involved at every inch of the process in terms of knowing what is going on at the various polling units through its processes and procedures.
Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu stated this during the public presentation of Yiaga Africa’s Watching The Vote report on the 2022 Governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun.
The report titled: “When electoral reforms deliver transparent elections” detailed some of the findings from the two governorship elections as observed by the civil society, Yiaga Africa.
Yakubu, who was represented by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr Festus Okoye, said: “This commission will continue to upload polling unit results to our INEC results viewing portal. This commission will not depart from it.
“The Nigerian people will be involved at every inch of the process in terms of knowing what is going on at the various polling units through our processes and procedures.
“We will continue to also manage the collation process transparently so that all Nigerians will also follow whatever we are doing and we will not depart from all the good practices we have established.
“We plead for the understanding of Nigerians, we plead for the cooperation of Nigerians because we recognise the fact that the 2023 election will be challenging, but we have the capacity, and we also have the courage to face those challenges in a very broad and courageous manner.
“So what we plead is the understanding of Nigerians as we move towards the decisive phase of the electoral process.”
Board Chairman, Yiaga Africa, Hussaini Abdu noted that the new Electoral Act is a major milestone in Nigeria’s journey to a more democratic and transparent electoral process.
Abdu said there had been gradual improvement in the electoral process with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
He said: “We also saw a much better improvement also in Osun , but we recognise that despite some of these remarkable improvements that we’re seeing, it has helped in raising the hope of citizens.”