CDD decries INEC poor communication on IReV, voter intimidation, others

By Abubakar Ojimaojo

Elite pro-democracy think tank, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has rated the conduct of the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections with a conclusion that the process was affected by several loopholes.
The non-governmental organisation hinged its position on data based on data received from its 4900 field observers deployed across the country, the Centre identified operational issues, poor communication by INEC, violence, voter intimidation and vote buying as some of the anomalies, which undermined the process.
CDD made the observation in its post-election report, signed by its Director, Idayat Hassan, warned that on the basis of the loopholes, which characterised the process, there could be a wave of litigations after the declaration of the results.
The report read: “Nigeria is likely to see another wave of electoral litigation in its courts that will likely reverse some electoral outcomes and perhaps even impact on governance in the short-term.”
Although the group applauded the fact that the election was not postponed like the past three elections, which have all been delayed, it however decried late arrival of INEC officials to polling units as well as challenges with bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS). CDD insisted that some voters voted in contravention of the legal framework, which requires that all voters must be authenticated by BVAS in order to vote.
The report noted that “Although less pronounced elsewhere in the country 8.7% of observers witnessed this taking place in south-south, 5.9% in southwest, 9.6% in the northeast, 4.2% in the southeast and 7.7% in the north-central zone. Technical issues were also noted by our observers, with 23.1% having witnessed issues of BVAS malfunction.
“This was particularly acute in the northeast, with 42.7% of observers recording a malfunction, but was also high in the northwest (28.7%).
Consequently, the Centre flayed INEC for the poor handling of the Result Viewing Portal (IReV), which it stressed was designed to provide real-time transmission of election results (Form EC 8A) from polling units to the central collation centre.
“The group further stressed that the IReV was an attempt to enhance the transparency of the process, and reduce the incidence of vote rigging. The group said as of 9pm on election day, there were no results uploaded to the platform for the presidential results, adding that at 11:00 on Monday 27 February only 53,154 polling unit results out of a total of 176,734 were publicly available on the platform”.
CDD further noted that, “The fact that some Senatorial and Federal House of Representatives elections were uploaded also fueled rumours of vote manipulation. Despite optimism from both INEC and citizens that technology could be a game changer in Nigeria’s elections, the way the technology was deployed during results transmission in particular has arguably weakened the public perception of transparency and accountability, rather than strengthened it.”
Nonetheless, CDD applauded the turnout of Nigerians, especially the youth despite well-documented instances of insecurity in all six geopolitical zones, and the fuel and currency scarcity that threatened to derail the electoral process. It however noted that the election suggested that ethnic identity remains an important factor shaping voter preference, with the youth not a monolithic block.