Sylvester Idowu in Warri
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former gubernatorial aspirant, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to repeat lapses that occurred in the concluded presidential and national assembly elections across the country.
He recalled that during the presidential and national assembly election many lapses ranging from non or late transmission of results from polling units to INEC server, INEC staff arriving at polling units without sensitive voting materials, late voting in some polling units to irreversible errors and omissions in the sorting, and counting processes.
Addressing journalists in Warri, Delta State after reviewing last election, Onuesoke said in order for INEC to regain the confidence of Nigerians, the commission should critically examine the challenges and make an immediate amend to avoid a repeat of same at the state level elections.
“Observers deployed across the country on presidential and NASS election day reported that the elections had so many hitches ranging from late arrival of INEC staff and election materials in many polling units, INEC staff arriving at some polling units with sensitive materials without security personnel and most disappointing is the failure of INEC server to transmit votes from polling units to INEC server,” he said.
Onuesoke noted that the introduction of BVAS and iREV was to ensure that it would be one-man-one-vote and that the figures of votes cast per polling unit would be transmitted immediately to the INEC portal reflected in the new Electoral Act 2022, stressing that the reverse seemed to the case in the concluded presidential election.
He noted that uploading results from the polling units direct to INEC server was one of the most credible methods to minimise successful change, manipulation or swapping of results at Local Government and State collation centres, adding that the direct upload to INEC server will also serve as a check on the accuracy of the LG and State centres’ report.
“Unfortunately, after counting the votes at the last elections, the majority of INEC staff at the polling units could not upload the results to the INEC server using the BVAS machine, citing variou suspicious technical reasons,” he noted.
Onuesoke, however, cautioned INEC not to repeat lapses during the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections so as to regain the confident Nigerians had on it after conducting Osun Governorship election.
