The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room on Thursday challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to avoid an abuse of the collation process, which, it alleged, was evident in the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 23.
While challenging the Commission to carry out “an effective and transparent collation of results with unfettered access to centres,” the organisation called on the Armed Forces to restrict themselves to the responsibilities as defined by INEC and the Electoral Act.
“INEC had committed not to yield to pressure from politicians seeking transfer of specific Resident Electoral Commissioners with replacements of amenable RECs to compromise the elections.
“We expect INEC to follow through with this commitment,” the group warned.
Situation Room said it expected that INEC and, indeed, all stakeholders in the electoral process would have taken lessons from the challenges of the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 23, 2019, and work towards delivering peaceful and credible state level elections.