A civil‑society organisation, Yiaga Africa, called on Thursday for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take deliberate steps to prevent and reduce post‑election violence that could arise from result computation across the country. The group warned that favouritism, nepotism and mediocrity would persist in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory unless INEC restored Nigerians’ confidence by conducting a credible election.
Yiaga Africa urged INEC, within the next 23 days, to collaborate urgently with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) districts in each state and the FCT. The partnership should focus on training INEC’s ad‑hoc staff to complete result sheets at polling units and ward collation centres, thereby reducing bureaucracy. Such collaboration could involve the ICAN districts and the Resident Electoral Commissioners in the various states. By mobilising ICAN members, the result‑recording process on form EC8A would be simplified, enabling presiding officers and other ad‑hoc staff to accurately compute the eight basic elements: number of registered voters, number of accredited voters, number of ballot papers issued, number of unused ballot papers, number of spoiled ballot papers, number of rejected ballots, total votes, and total used ballot papers.
Yiaga Africa also noted that the outcome of the election tribunal in Osun should serve as a “preview” for INEC of what to expect from the elections in the 176,846 polling units nationwide. A pre‑election report by Administrative and Finance Officer Daniel Mkpume, titled “2023: Exploring Professional Training on Election Results Collation,” obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, recorded that since the introduction of the INEC Result Viewing Portal, 128,994 accounts have been opened by IReV users. Mkpume expects this number to rise in 2023 as more Nigerians become interested in polling‑unit results.
The report highlighted that training for ad‑hoc staff had been delayed due to off‑cycle elections and legal challenges stemming from previous election manuals and guidelines. Nevertheless, Mkpume stressed the importance of INEC partnering with appropriate professionals to avert future judicial crises that could undermine the electoral process. He wrote, “There is no doubt that an election is essentially a game of numbers determined by eligible citizens who turn out to vote. Any omission or commission that leads to even a slight mistake in result collation could jeopardise the process. Even an honorable mistake by electoral officials in imputing and collating results can affect the overall outcome. Effective training of electoral officers on a simplified, accurate collation process will boost citizens’ confidence and promote accountability.”
Quoting INEC Chairman Professor Yakubu Mahmood’s keynote at the release of the Election Result Analysis Dashboard in Abuja, Mkpume recalled, “We also encourage other organisations to partner with INEC on this or other aspects of the electoral process and assure you of our willingness to collaborate towards making our electoral process participatory, secure, transparent, credible and verifiable.” He urged the chairman to match his words with action, ensuring that such collaboration incurs no cost to either party. Mkpume also suggested that INEC could partner with relevant departments in tertiary institutions where ICAN’s membership capacity falls short.
Finally, he emphasized that public trust is essential for the successful deployment of electoral technologies. The introduction of IReV into the election‑result management framework has improved public perception of result accuracy and credibility. INEC must strive for “100 % or nothing” in the quality of results uploaded from the 176,846 polling units across the federation.
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