The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has said the commission is not going back on its decision to upload the results of the 2023 general elections on its portal.
Yakubu stated this at the National Stakeholders’ Forum on the 2023 general elections organised by the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room.
According to the INEC chairman, uploading results to the portal would enable Nigerians to have a real-time view of the results as they are being collated.
He said the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has come to stay and that there will be no provision for incident form on election day.
Yakubu stressed that INEC’s loyalty is to Nigerians, and not to anyone.
Meanwhile, Yakubu said the Commission is also partnering with necessary institutions in the country to track the spending of politicians during the campaign period and on election day.
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The chairman said INEC will today publish a summary of the legal provisions for election expenses for Nigerians to also be able to monitor the situation.
Yakubu, however, expressed concern over the current security situation in the country.
According to the INEC boss, this is further heightened by recent attacks on political parties during campaigns and on INEC’s facilities in Ogun State and other states.
Meanwhile, ahead of the 2023 general election, INEC has said that an aggregate of 234,037 voters are yet to claim their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) in Ekiti State.
The new INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ekiti State, Ayobami Salami, gave the revelation in Ado Ekiti, yesterday during a visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat in Ado Ekiti.
Salami said a total of 754,886 had collected their PVCs, out of 988,923 total registered voters in the state, which he said represents 24 per cent of registration in the state .
According to him, “Preparatory to the forthcoming 2023 general elections in Ekiti, let me state that INEC has 16 local governments areas, 177 Registration areas, and 2,445 polling units to deal with.
“We have a total number of 988,923 registered voters out of which 754,886 voters have collected their PVCs, while 234,037, representing 24 per cent are yet to collect their PVCs”.
Salami said the Bimodal Voters Assessment System and the INEC Result Viewing Portal would be fully applied in all elections.
He urged registered voters to break away from the culture of long-standing apathy, and participate actively in the 2023 general elections.
“As part of our preparations, INEC had on 12th November, 2022 commenced a nationwide display of preliminary claims and objections, which shall end on the 25th November, 2022.
“Therefore, I want to use this medium to call on registered voters to visit our local government headquarters to actively participate in the exercise using our online link”.
Salami, who also spoke on the recent court judgment directing INEC to continue with the registration of voters, said; “INEC would comply whenever the court judgment is served. But we are yet to be served. As a law-abiding commission, we will abide by it”.
The Professor of Environmental Science, added that the commission will build on the success recorded in the June 18, 2022 governorship election in Ekiti State, as well as other past polls judged to be transparent and acceptable.
