Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has said only 30 percent local and International observer groups have yet to turn in their 2023 general election reports.
Also, Yakubu debunked the reports that INEC collected cash support from international development partners for the conduct of the 2023 general election.
On 21st February, before the 2023 general election, Yakubu addressed the group, saying as a consequence, observers submit reports to electoral commissions highlighting strengths and weaknesses of processes.
The reports and recommendations of observers and the knowledge from the study tours help electoral commissions to progressively improve processes.
Yakubu who was speaking during a meeting with Civil Society Organisations, CSOs on the review of the 2023 general election on Monday in Abuja, said so far, only 67 observer groups (62 domestic and five foreign) have so far submitted their observation reports which represents just about 30% of accredited groups for the election.
Yakubu said, “We urge all accredited observer groups that are yet to submit their reports to do so in earnest.
“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, it is necessary to seize this opportunity 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.
According to him “While voter accreditation using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was very successful, the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), especially for the presidential election, encountered a glitch as explained in our statement released by the Commission on 26th February 2023.
“The Commission is aware that this matter is currently the subject of litigation and would reserve its comments for now. Nevertheless, the performance of the technology deployed for the election is part of the ongoing review of the 2023 General Election.”
In her response on behalf of the civil society organisations, Executive Director,Centre for Transparency Advocacy Faith Nwadishi, said, ” it has always been the tradition of the commission to engage civil society groups. We acknowledge the fact that technology played a great role in 2023 general election and we also acknowledged that some of the lapses experienced in the 2023 election were as a result of technology.
“And also to note that out of 228 accredited civil society groups only 67 turn in their reports. This is not very good, I will encourage my colleagues to put in the same efforts they put in for application to ensure they do the same to submit their reports. Because over the years I have noticed that the recommendations we put in our reports are taken on by INEC.
“This has brought some of the reforms we have seen in our electoral process. So, 30 percent of 228 accredited observer groups that have submitted their reports several months after the election is not a good outing for us.”
