By The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday said it learned from the recently conducted Ekiti and Osun governorship elections ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, said this in Abuja at the Yiaga Africa Post-election Roundtable and Public Presentation of Final Report on the Observation of the 2022 Ekiti and Osun Governorship Elections.
Yakubu, represented by Mr. Festus Okoye , INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, said the commission would proceed to listen and learn important lessons from the people who observed the governorship elections. He said, “I want to seize this opportunity to assure Nigerians that this present commission will be bold and courageous in prosecuting the 2023 general elections.
“We will continue to harvest lessons from the Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Ekiti, and the Osun governorship elections in shaping the way we approach the 2023 general election.
” We are going to harvest all the good practices, we are also going to look at some of those issues we did not do so well, and we will improve on them.
“Our assurance is that this commission will not lower the bar, and we are going to continue to upload polling unit results to our INEC results viewing portal this commission will not depart from it.”
Yakubu said that citizens would be involved in every last bit of the process in terms of knowing what is happening at the different polling units through INEC, processes, and procedures.
He added the commission would proceed to likewise manage the results collation process transparently.
He encouraged civil society associations, the media, ideological groups, and every one of the political parties and all the critical stakeholders to study the Electoral Act 2022 and have a functioning knowledge of the act.
He expressed that only if there is good knowledge of the document, it would be undeniably challenging to follow the direction of the electoral process, the advancements, and a portion of the changes the commission would make.
He likewise argued for the understanding and cooperation of Nigerians.
“We recognize the fact that the 2023 elections 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,” he assured.
Dr Hussain Abdu, Board Chair, Yiaga Africa, said the Ekiti and Osun governorship decisions denoted an exceptionally turning point in electoral history in the country.
He said this was more significant as they were held after the amendment of the Electoral Act, especially the utilization of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
He, notwithstanding, said that logistics remained one significant challenge of the electoral process, adding that the event was pointed toward taking a look at some of the electing challenges from past elections to chat a way forward for 2023.
