European Union Releases statement says election lacks transparency and failed in its operations

European Union Releases statement says election lacks transparency: moo   The International Election Observers, European
Union releases first statement. Says Election
lacks transparency and failed in its operations

European Union Releases statement says election lacks transparency: the statement reads;

On 25 February, Nigerians went to the polls in highly anticipated presidential and National Assembly
clections that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INC) kept on schedule despite a volatile
and challenging environment. Fundamental freedoms of assembly and movement were largely respected,
yet the full enjoyment of the latter was impeded by insufficient planning, insecurity and the prevailing
Naira and fuel shortages. Abuse of incumbency by various political office holders distorted the playing
field and there were widespread allegations of vote buying. Media provided an

extensive coverage of the three leading campaigns, while disinformation interfered with voters’ rightt o make an informed choice

on clection day. The EU EOM is continuing its observation of the ongoing collation and tabulation of results throughout the country.

European Union Releases statement says election lacks transparency: The INEC

INEC’s operational capacity was hampered by the ongoing fuel and Nara shortage.

Insecurity prevented
it from accessing some Local Government Areas (GAs), notably in the South. Attacks on INEC premises,
including just days before polling, hindered preparations in affected areas, while instilling fear in voters.
Overall, stakeholders had expressed confidence in INEC’s independence, professionalism, and voter
information cfforts, but this decreased ahead of elections. INEC lacked efficient planning and transparency
during critical stages of the electoral process, while on clection day trust in INEC was seen 10 further
reduce due to delayed polling processes and information gaps related to much anticipated access to results
on its Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

The Electorial act

In the lead-up to elections, the widely welcomed Electoral Act 2022 introduced measures aimed at
building stakeholder trust, however laving some important gaps in terms of accountability and INEC’s
power to enforce the law. Weak points include a lack of INC empowerment to enforce sanctions for
elecioral offences and breaches of campaign finance rules. Positively, INEC benefited from more timely
financing than for previous contests. Other new provisions also aimed to enhance transparency of results.
The introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the ReV for the 2023 clections
was perceived as an important step to ensure the integrity and credibility of elections. However, delayed
training of technical personnel, an inadequate mock testing exercise, and a lack of public information on
the election technologies diminished expectations and left room for speculation and uncertainty.

The collation

During the carly stages of collation, presidential result forms from polling units were not displayed on the
ReV, while Senate and House of Representative results were slowly published. Presidential election result
forms started to be uploaded after 10 pm on election day, raising concerns and reaching only 20 per cent
by noon on 26 February. Later the same evening, INEC explained the delay with “Iechnical hitches.”