Ahead of the November 16 governorship elections in
Kogi and Bayelsa State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday said results of the
gubernatorial election would be transmitted manually.
Responding to questions from THISDAY, the Chief
Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyakanmi, said the law mandates
the commission to operate a manual transmission of results.
According to him, "The 1999 Constitution (as
amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) do not recognise the electronic transmission
of results. The Commission will follow the prescription of the law," which
he said is to be transmitted manually in line with the extant laws guiding
elections in Nigeria.
It was also gathered that INEC stated this to avoid
the controversy trailing the results of presidential election where the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, is claiming that the results were transmitted electronically.
THISDAY also gathered that the Commission had
commenced the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) on the September 2,
2019, and that the exercise will last till September 30, 2019.
The Commission disclosed that the distribution would
commence between 9.00a.m and 3.00 p.m. (Monday to Friday).
INEC said the Resident Electoral Commissioners
(RECs) of the two states would provide
contacts and telephone numbers where registered voters who have not collected
their PVCs can call and make inquiries relating to the collection.
To facilitate easy collections of the voters cards,
the Commission will send bulk text message to the registered voters in the two states
who are yet to collect their PVCs, and will also display the list of registered
voters that are yet to collect their PVCs at the respective state and local government
offices of the Commission as well as other designated public places.
So far, it
said the total number of uncollected PVCs for Kogi State is 170,644 while that
of Bayelsa State is 49, 291.
Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC
chairman, Oyakanmi, has said the Commission has much to tell Nigerians about
the conduct of the last general election, but urged Nigerians to wait till
after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has delivered its judgement.
Oyakanmi, spoke to THISDAY over the reports of the
Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) that carpeted INEC management of the
2019 general election.
Hemade this known to THISDAY while reacting to the
condemnation of the last general elections by the CDD, saying: "There is a
lot to say about the 2019 elections, but that will be after the conclusion of
the tribunal’s work."
According to the INEC boss Chief Press Secretary,
"While the INEC welcomes comments, observations and constructive
criticisms on 2019 general election, the Commission will not join issues
arising from reports generated by accredited observers or personal opinions by
individuals at this time.
"It is a common knowledge that the
Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has reserved judgment on the petition
before its members in respect of the election, and it will not be appropriate
for us to begin to respond to individual reports by observers on the same
election."
The CDD, which monitored the 2019 general election,
last Friday, condemned the election process, saying INEC was less transparent
in the election than they were in 2015 and 2011.
The civil society organisation in its postmortem
report on 2019 elections collation released last Thursday in Abuja, said the
election was hampered by ward level collation challenges such as missteps and
misconduct of INEC staff; deliberate denial of access to observers and media;
logistical shortfalls, and intentional disruption by politicians, political
thugs and party agents.
The report said: "One of the most noticeable and
avoidable missteps INEC made in the 2019 election is its refusal to publish
detailed election results to its website. INEC has only published national level
totals for the 2019 presidential election, choosing to keep sub-national
results data hidden from public view. This opaque approach reverses the tangible
albeit incomplete progress on results transparency that accompanied the 2011
and 2015 elections."
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