Political Roundtable passes vote of confidence on INEC Chairman

Civil Society Political Roundtable has condemned the call for sack of chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Yakubu Mahmood.

This formed part of resolutions reached at the end of a Roundtable put together by the Civil Society Organizations Central Coordinating Council which is the highest organ of the Civil Society community in Nigeria in collaboration with Chairmen of political parties.

The Political roundtable while passing a unanimous vote of confidence on the INEC chairman while also commending the introduction of technology in the accreditation and transmission of results and called on the National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act 2022 to enable the deployment of technology in the result collation and announcement processes.

The communiqué of the roundtable also frowned at what it call stereotyped attack on the INEC National Chairman and rejected the calls for his sack which the roundtable said was an expression of ill-will and done in bad faith.

It further questioned the reports of the European Union Election Observer Mission and that of the Civil Society Situation for being narrow and not representative of what actually happened at the nearly 180,000 Polling units in the country wondering how a few observers deployed by both groups could have turned in credible reports.

The roundtable further called on the newly appointed security chiefs in the country to give the INEC leadership full support to ensure the November Governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States are free, fair and credible.

The communique was signed by Barr Kenneth Udenze, National Chairman, Action Alliance, Barr Uchenna Nnadi, National Chairman, Action Peoples Party, Chief Isaac Udeh, National Chairman, National Rescue Movement, High Chief Dan Nwanyawu, National Chairman, Zenith Labour Party, Alhaji Lawal Nalado, National Chairman, Accord, and Ezenwa Nwagwu
Chairman, partners for Electoral Reforms.

Reading the Communiqué on behalf of the political parties and the candidates, Barr Kenneth Udenze said the Roundtable observed that the diversity of political parties in the national Assembly was clear evidence that the elections were free, fair and credible noting that minority parties formed a majority of members of the House of Representatives.

The Roundtable observed that in the House of Representatives, members from minority parties are in the majority in the House showing a truly representative House as voted by the people. The Roundtable agrees that this speaks directly to the integrity and credibility of the election and commended the commission for performing well in this regard,” the communique noted.

The Roundtable criticized the election observation report of the European Union, saying it falls below standard of any report by any credible agency on election observation mission.

The Roundtable wondered how the EU could rely on the report of a few observers deployed in a handful of urban centres be representative of the almost 180 000 Polling Units in the country.

The communique reads further, “The Political Roundtable reviewed the technological innovations introduced by the Commission including the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) and commended both innovations as having helped to strengthen the integrity of the elections.

“The Political Roundtable reviewed the pre-election internal discipline mechanism adopted by INEC which helped reduce internal wrangling within the political parties and the tendency for factionalization of the political parties.