An election observer group, Yiaga Africa has called for a comprehensive audit on the delay by the Independent National Electoral Commission in uploading election results during last Saturday’s presidential and national assembly election.
The organisation said this would help clear doubts and restore confidence in the electoral processes.
Yiaga Africa Board Member, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, said this during the presentation of the group’s findings from Saturday’s election.
The failure of INEC to upload election results on the IReV portal had generated concerns, with some Nigerians alleging compromise of the process.
Abdullahi noted that serious logistical and technological shortcomings undermined public confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission.
She said: “A comprehensive audit and investigation to unravel the factors that led to the delay in the upload of election results on the online portal is critical.
“Persons found complicit in sabotaging the critical aspect of the election should be sanctioned. INEC should clarify the inconsistencies in some of the results especially Presidential election results from Rivers and Imo states.
“Voting hours should be extended to 5pm to increase voter participation in subsequent elections. Legal timelines for testing new electoral technologies should be introduced to Nigeria’s electoral legal framework.”
“INEC should provide clarifications on its interpretation of key aspects of the legal framework on issues like results collation and transmission process, the threshold for determining the winner in an election and the commission’s power to review election results declared under duress or in contravention of the Electoral Act, INEC guidelines and Manual.
“INEC should sustain the uploads of polling unit results from form EC 8A on its IReV portal.”