By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

A civil society organisation, Connected Development, CODE, on Thursday, charged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to save Nigeria’s democracy.

The Chief Executive Officer of the group, Hamzat Lawal, gave the charge in Abuja on Thursday while presenting CODE’s Interim Statement on the process and conduct of Nigeria’s presidential and national assembly elections 2023.

According to him, the federal elections failed to meet the basic threshold of credible polls as they fell short of citizens’ expectations, INEC’s assurances, and the benchmark of international election best practices.

Consequently, he identified delays in the deployment of elections materials and other logistics, late opening of polls, professional misconduct of security personnel, INEC’s non-adherence to the use of BVAS for biometric accreditation, and the failure to transmit results from polling unit electronically in accordance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC 2023 Election guidelines as some of the issues that marred the polls.

Lawal, however, stated that INEC had an opportunity to redeem its image as Nigerians prepare to go to the polls for State elections on 11th March 2023.

He explained that the election management body must be transparent at all times and resist the temptation of creating doubt in the minds of the electorate.

Lawal said, “As Nigerians prepare to go to the polls for State elections on 11th March 2023, Connected Development and her partners appeal to INEC to ensure that the many challenges that marred the credibility of the Presidential election should be handled. 

“More importantly, INEC should ensure transparency of the result management and collation process by timely upload of polling unit results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV), to stand a chance at redeeming her already deflated public confidence, and her almost blown-away goodwill which they have enjoyed from Nigerians.”