Nigerians have continued to raise alarm over the delay by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in uploading much of the presidential and National Assembly election results to the INEC server after voting ended at various polling units nationwide Saturday.
Checks by The New Diplomat via the INEC IRev portal reveal that only results from 15,011 out of 176,846 polling units in the country had been uploaded on the portal as of the time of this reporting.
Many Nigerians who took to the social media have expressed displeasure over the failure by INEC to stay true to its earlier promise that results would be uploaded blow-by-blow from the polling unit level-ward-LGA-state and the central collation centre, Abuja in real-time.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood had at several times assured Nigerians that with Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, the results would be uploaded on the portal as they come from various polling units.
Following the delay, the Labour Party in a statement signed by the Head, Obi-Datti Media Office, Diran Onifade, in Abuja, on Saturday, had alleged underhand move “to torpedo the wishes of Nigerians” in the Presidential Election across the country.
He said, “It is curious, unacceptable, and smacks of fraud that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) device could nobly transmit the Senate and House of Representatives results, but cannot do that of the Presidential election.
“The Obi-Datti Media Office finds it curious that the BVAS would choose which results to upload and which not to upload. Certainly, this smacks of a serious fraud aimed to torpedo the wishes of the Nigerian electorate who have already decided that things can no longer continue to go wrong in Nigeria, using the ballot box to do so.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), should be held responsible for this flagrant anomaly that defies logic, as the Obi-Datti Media Office finds what is developing as a recipe to manipulate the process and truncate the electoral wishes of the Nigerian masses.
“We also find unbecoming, the reported interference of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. We call on all relevant bodies to do the needful and prevent the Governor from meddling in the electoral process.
“We wish to state categorically that the Obi-Datti Media Office will not accept any presidential election result that is not in tandem with the results issued at the polling units, copies of which we already have.
“We are calling the attention of local and international observers and other stakeholders, to this unfortunate and orchestrated anomaly. Please call INEC to order.“
Also, Yiaga Africa in a tweet made on its official handle @YIAGA, the electoral monitoring group said it was “deeply concerned” that results had yet to be uploaded to the site, noting that voting and counting had ended in several polling units.
The tweet reads thus, “Update: Yiaga Africa is deeply concerned with the delay in uploading polling unit results for the presidential election on the INEC Election Result Portal. As of 7 pm on election day, no result was uploaded after voting & counting ended in several polling units. #NigeriaDecides2023”.
The New Diplomat reports that some of the Lagos results sheets later uploaded to the INEC IRev portal late Saturday into Sunday morning appear blurry as seen in the obtained sheets below for 54/64, Awodi Ora, Ajeromi-Ifelodun LGA.
The essence of IReV is to enable citizens and observers follow the process in real-time to make the ballot sorting and counting process more transparent as against what was obtainable in past elections.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of INEC, Yakubu has announced the collation of the Presidential and National Assembly results will start on Sunday.
“I will like to invite you at midday tomorrow (Sunday) for the official opening of the National Innovation Centre for the 2023 general elections.
“We hope that by tomorrow, we expect to have some of the election results coming from states, particularly for the presidential election.” Mahmood said.
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