By our correspondent
A Civil Society National Roundtable has commended technological innovations introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC during the 2023 general elections describing them as the secret behind the success of the elections.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the Roundtable passed a unanimous vote of confidence on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu following their comprehensive review of the 2023 general election.
The Roundtable put together by the Civil Society Organizations Central Coordinating Council which is the highest organ of the Civil Society community in Nigeria had in attendance Chairmen of political parties, some Presidential, Governorship, Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly candidates from various political parties.
The National Roundtable also commended 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 called stereotyped attack on the INEC’s National Chairman and rejected the calls for his sack which the it 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 Room 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.
Reading the Communiqué on behalf of the political parties and the candidates, Chief Ken Udeze, National Chairman of Action Alliance 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.
In conclusion the group gave thumbs up to the Chairman of the Commission for the peaceful conduct of the 2023 elections and commended the candidates who lost and have approached the tribunals using Certified True Copies of documents and digital records provided by INEC, a move they observed was a proof of the neutrality of the Commission during the election.
