INEC REPLIES PETITION, SAYS ELECTRONIC COLLATION NOT MANDATORY

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC says electronic collation of election results is not mandatory.

INEC made this known in response to a petition by the Action Peoples Party (APP) before the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) in Abuja.

The APP is challenging the result of the 2023 presidential election which declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the winner on the grounds of alleged substantial non-compliance with the electoral laws of Nigeria, as well as breach of INEC guidelines.

INEC through one of its lawyers, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), insisted that it conducted free and fair polls on February 25.

The APP had alleged that INEC breached its own laws and guidelines.

However, INEC dismissed the party’s argument that results collation were to be done electronically, citing paragraphs 50 to 55 of the regulations and guidelines for the conduct of the 2023 presidential election.

It also dismissed the allegation that its officials doctored results to favour a particular political party’s candidate or that there was over-voting.

It further stated that its online result viewing portal became erratic at the point of collation and members of its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) team were called in to rectify the problem, the reason the presidential results were not immediately uploaded.

INEC said it will tender in evidence the report of its ICT department during the tribunal hearing with two witnesses who are INEC officials for further clarity.

The dates for the hearing of the five petitions so far received from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the APP, Action Alliance (AA) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) is yet to be fixed by the court