The Collation of Northern CSOs under the aegis of Conference of Northern Civil Society Networks has rated the just concluded Feb 25th Election, poor and below expectations.
That the election conducted by INEC has fallen short of the standard of all elections practices and ethics which has raised so much credibility questions on INEC and created doubt on the minds of Nigerians regarding Commission’s preparedness to conduct free, fair, credible and acceptable elections in Nigeria.
Addressing news men during a press conference on Monday in Kano, Comrade Ibrahim Waiya, noted that the CSOs were dismayed over what happened at the National Results Collation Centre, where the INEC Chairman insisted on proceeding with result collation against the requests by some party agents to ascertain the electronically transmitted results.
He said, the deliberate disregard to the Electoral Act provision on the transmission of results electronically had grossly undermined the process. Hence, the credibility question on the outcome of the presidential election was not in any way something that could be attributed to the failure of technology to allow for the needed transparency, but rather an outcome of non – application of the technology.
Waiya listed other issues that marred the election to include; strong allegations of compromise against some Electoral Officers, allegation of alterations of original results and accepting same at the Collation centres.
Others are voter apathy which also affected the credibility of the elections exercise through a glaring non participation of citizens in the national exercise amongst many more.
The Northern Civil Societies condemned in strong terms, violence experienced during the elections in Lagos, Rivers States with the worst amongst, experienced in Kano State which claimed the lives of many innocent young men.
The Conference recommends that compliance with the provisions of Electoral Act 2022 must be observed to ensure electoral credibility in Nigeria.
That Electoral offenders of any kind must be punished under the laws of the country to discourage others from perpetrating electoral offences again in the country.
Also, that, it is imperative for INEC to review all evidence of electoral malpractices presented before the commission in the interest of peace and security.
However, the collation applauded the performance of security agencies in the country who they said, performed wonderfully well in ensuring peaceful polls during the recent elections, and urge them to continue with the work in the next elections.
