One year after the 2023 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has eventually released the report on the conduct of the exercise, admitting some flaws and making claims of successes. INEC provided the explanation in its 526-page 2023 General Elections Report published on its website. In the report, INEC also explained why Nigerians could not view in real-time the result of the presidential election on its Results Viewing (IReV) during the election contrary to its earlier pledge to transmit the result.
INEC admitted that a key challenge that impacted on the public perception of the election and elicited widespread criticism was the failure to upload Polling Unit results of the presidential election to IReV in real-time at the close of polls on Saturday 25 February 2023. It blamed the glitch experienced in uploading the scanned images of polling unit presidential election result sheets of the election to the inherent complexity within the system, which it claimed was difficult to anticipate and mitigate.
Notwithstanding the obvious lapses experienced in the exercise, INEC insisted that the 2023 poll was free and fair, adding that it reflected the wishes of Nigerians. The commission maintained that an analysis of the poll showed that no party dominated it and that the spread of results across party lines was better than in previous elections conducted in the country.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, described the poll as unique in terms of keeping to the timetable, new 80 clauses in the Electoral Act, and introduction of new technologies which made voting easier. He added that the elections were perhaps the best planned and most innovative election in Nigeria.
“The election witnessed the highest number of eligible voters and voting locations across the country with the participation of over one million election duty officials and the deployment of enormous logistic requirements including over 100,000 vehicles and about 4,000 boats protected by gunboats,” the report added.
However, some Nigerians have dismissed the report as an afterthought and sheer contradiction of what transpired during the polls. They contended that a major flaw in the conduct of the poll was the inability of the electoral umpire to transmit presidential election result through its IReV portal as promised. It is contradictory that the same INEC transmitted the election results of the National Assembly held at the same time with the presidential poll on its IReV portal.
The failure of INEC to deliver on target in the 2023 polls, has, no doubt, created huge credibility crisis for it. It was unfortunate that despite repeated assurances to conduct transparent polls by INEC and the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the exercise was bungled. The commission promised much and delivered little.
Contrary to what INEC has said, the 2023 poll is one of the most flawed polls in the history of the country. Despite the enormous resources made available to the electoral umpire to conduct the best election ever in the country, it flopped. The Supreme Court, while delivering judgement on a dispute challenging the outcome of the election, noted that the malfunctioning of IReV during the presidential election reduced public confidence in the electoral process.
Justice Inyang Okoro, the presiding justice, who read the court’s lead decision, was emphatic that “the non-functioning of the IReV may have also reduced the confidence of the voting public in the electoral process.”
Generally, the election was poorly conducted. Apart from the lapses in electronic transmission of results, the exercise was marred by violence, voter intimidation and suppression, ballot snatching, manipulation, vote buying and other electoral infractions. INEC’s report on the election is contrary to what an actually happened during the exercise. The report does not align with the reports of foreign and local observers on the poll. The 2023 poll cannot be said to be substantially free, fair and transparent.
Going forward, INEC should put its house in order and be ready and willing to give Nigerians a credible poll come 2027. There is urgent need to improve the electoral process. This is the time to start the preparation for the next election season.
The National Assembly has a role to play in ensuring that Nigerians are given transparent and credible elections, subsequently. Laws that will make for free and fair elections should be enacted. It is good that the House of Representatives has passed for second reading a bill to amend the 2022 Electoral Act by making electronic transmission of results mandatory. We believe that electronic transmission of results will restore people’s confidence in the electoral system.