Kogi State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. James Apam, yesterday ruled out the possibility of transmitting results of the state’s November 16 governorship poll through the use of electronic means.
Apam, who stated this during an interactive session on election and collation process in Nigerian elections organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja, said that the decision was in line with the provision of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended.
He said it behooves on stakeholders to push for the amendment of the Electoral Act to enforce the electronic transmission of results in subsequent elections in the country.
But Managing Director of Premium Times, Mr. Idris Akinbajo, who accused Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of not providing the enabling environment, said non-payment of allowances to ad-hoc members of staff, transportation, and power supply were responsible for problems associated with manipulation of results during the electioneering process.
He warned that unless results are electronically transmitted, the problem associated with votes’ rigging and manipulation of results would still reoccur in the 2023 poll.
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Also, Head, OSIWA-Nigeria, Mr. Jude Ilo, who spoke in the same vein, wondered why INEC would have to wait for the amendment of the Electoral Act to deploy the use of electronic means of transmitting results at the poll.
And for the Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Chief Peter Ameh, the call for transmission of polls’ results was a welcome development, just as he faulted the call for the reduction of the numbers of registered political parties in the polity.
CDD’s Executive Director, Idayat Hassan, who disclosed that there were significant defects in collation of results in some states, urged the electoral body to improve the processes for conducting collation in line with international best practices.
Meanwhile, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has appointed Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni to serve as Returning Officer for the Bayelsa State 2019 governorship primaries.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Director-General for Press Affairs to the Governor, Abdullahi Bego, yesterday.
The appointment of Buni was contained in a letter signed by the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole.
The primary election was originally scheduled for yesterday but shifted to tomorrow, August 31, 2019. [THE GUARDIAN]
