Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC),
on Monday clarified that the
electoral umpire does not receive
direct funding from development
partners as alleged in some quarters, stating that it only receives
cash funding from the Federal
Government.
Yakubu said this at an INEC’s
engagement with critical stakeholders during review of the 2023
general election.
He said, “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”.
At the event, members of
the civil society organisations
(CSOs) demanded a clear explanation from the electoral body on
why the INEC Results Viewing
Portal failed especially during
the presidential election.
Ms. Faith Nwadishi, Convener of the Centre for Transparency Advocacy, who spoke on
behalf of the CSOs at INEC’s engagement with the CSOs in Abuja, said the CSOs are yet to come
to terms with what happened to
the IREV especially during the
presidential election and would
want explanation that will not in
any way injure what is presently
before the court.
The IREV, we recall, surprisingly failed to function during
the presidential poll whereas
the senatorial and House of
Representatives election results
held simultaneously across the
country were uploaded to IREV
portal.
“I know Sir that in your
statement you mentioned that
the issue of IREV is still in court
and it’s something you want to
suspend comment on but within
the purvey of what will not affect
what is in court we hope you
can throw light on while IREV
couldn’t do what it was supposed
to do especially in the presidential election”.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu,
INEC Chairman, had earlier
in his address told CSOs that
despite their best efforts, the
election faced a number of challenges especially the failure to
upload the result of the presidential election on the INEC Result
Viewing Portal, citing alleged
glitches, among other challenges.
Yakubu, who hailed the performance of the Bimodal Voter
Accreditation System used in
accreditation of voters and the
positive impact of technology
on the poll, however, said other
issues including the currency
redesign, logistics challenges
and activities of political parties
created needless bottlenecks.
“As you are aware, there were
many challenges encountered before and during the elections. The
severe cash and fuel situations
were compounded by the perennial insecurity nationwide. Their
impact on our deployment plans,
compounded by the behaviour of
some of our own officials in the
field, made logistics management
particularly challenging.
“The deployment of thugs
by some political actors made
election day administration
difficult in a number of places.
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.”
The INEC chairman commended the CSOs for their roles
in the various reforms that
birthed the 2023 Electoral Act,
while urging those who are yet
to submit their reports on the
2023 poll to do so in the interest
of future elections.
The commission had observed that out of 228 accredited
election observation groups,
only 67, representing just 30%
of those accredited have so far
submitted their reports.
