Three of Nigeria’s opposition parties have called for the cancellation of the February 25 presidential and parliamentary elections, citing widespread manipulation and lack of transparency. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken the lead in the ongoing collation process, with provisional results from 19 of Nigeria’s 36 states putting the APC’s presidential candidate Bola Tinubu in the lead.
At a joint news conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC) alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had compromised the integrity of the election before collation began. They called for INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu to step down from his position and be replaced by “a credible person from outside the commission”.
The parties also expressed concern about the slow pace of uploading result sheets from polling units to a new electronic portal designed to improve electoral transparency, which they said had allowed room for manipulation of results. LP chairman Julius Abure said: “We monitored with dismay the travesty to democracy exhibited at the collation centre of INEC. It is, to say the least, a rape on democracy. We are therefore constrained to state that INEC compromised the integrity of the election even before collation began…We have therefore arrived at the conclusion that the election has been irretrievably compromised.”
Observers, voters and civil society leaders have also complained about logistical challenges in the conduct of the polls and lack of transparency. Ayisha Osori, former executive director of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, said: “Collation in Nigeria is a black hole – nothing that comes out is to be trusted without a means of verification. As a low-trust society, we welcomed IReV [the results viewing portal] as a means of verifying our polling unit results. Without this transparency, results written by a few men become difficult to accept.”
The APC has dismissed the opposition’s allegations, urging INEC to announce the result quickly to defuse the situation. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo also wrote an open letter addressed to outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, claiming that INEC officials had been compromised and the results doctored. He urged Buhari to “let all elections that do not pass the credibility and transparency test be cancelled”.
The European Union observer mission also said INEC “lacked efficient planning and transparency during critical stages of the electoral process”. The opposition has called on Buhari to cancel the disputed elections, as there are mounting concerns that there could be post-electoral violence. Former Nigerian Senate President Iyorchia Ayu, PDP’s chairman, said: “We don’t want Nigerians to take the law into their hands, and we representatives have the responsibility to take this action.” The APC has urged security forces “to immediately restrain” those calling for violence.
Three Nigerian opposition parties have called for the cancellation of February 25 presidential and parliamentary elections due to alleged manipulation and lack of transparency. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently leading in the collation process, with provisional results from 19 states putting its presidential candidate Bola Tinubu in the lead.
At a joint news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, representatives from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC) accused INEC of compromising the integrity of the election before collation began. They demanded that INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu step down from his position and be replaced by “a credible person from outside the commission”.
The opposition parties raised concerns about the slow pace of uploading result sheets from polling units to a new electronic portal designed to improve electoral transparency, which they said had allowed room for manipulation of results. LP chairman Julius Abure stated: “We monitored with dismay the travesty to democracy exhibited at the collation centre of INEC. It is, to say the least, a rape on democracy. We are therefore constrained to state that INEC compromised the integrity of the election even before collation began…We have therefore arrived at the conclusion that the election has been irretrievably compromised.”
Observers, voters and civil society leaders have also complained about logistical challenges in the conduct of the polls and lack of transparency. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote an open letter addressed to outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, claiming that INEC officials had been compromised and the results doctored. He urged Buhari to “let all elections that do not pass the credibility and transparency test be cancelled”. The European Union observer mission also said INEC “lacked efficient planning and transparency during critical stages of the electoral process”.
The opposition has called on Buhari to cancel the disputed elections, as there are mounting concerns that there could be post-electoral violence. Former Nigerian Senate President Iyorchia Ayu, PDP’s chairman, said: “We don’t want Nigerians to take the law into their hands, and we representatives have the responsibility to take this action.” The APC has urged security forces “to immediately restrain” those calling for violence.
The opposition parties’ demand for cancellation of elections has been met with strong criticism from APC, who has urged INEC to quickly announce results in order to defuse tensions. However, with mounting evidence of manipulation and lack of transparency in electoral processes, it is clear that Nigeria needs a credible electoral system if it is to ensure free and fair elections in future.