Electoral Act Did Not Mandate INEC to Transmit Results Electronically – APC-PCC
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), on Friday, said the new Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) did not mandate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to transmit election results electronically. The Council maintained that the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System ( BVAS) machine performed optimally contrary to the claim by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Media and Communication Adviser of the APC-PCC, Dele Alake, made the declaration at a press conference held in Abuja on Friday.
Alake's reaction followed claims by Atiku and the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, that while the BVAS was compromised, the electoral umpire breached provisions of the Electoral Act by its failure to post election results to INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). According to Alake, the Electoral Act 2022 did not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results. He faulted the PDP presidential candidate's claim to victory in last Saturday's presidential election, as he noted that the exit of Peter Obi from the PDP, who eventually emerged as LP candidate, dealt a fatal blow to Atiku’s aspiration. He said: “The claim that INEC did not use the BVAS is false. Those who voted across Nigeria, including Atiku and Obi, were accredited by BVAS. Save for the bad losers that these two people have proven to be, we should rather be celebrating the tremendous improvement the use of BVAS has brought to our electoral process.
“The complaint over the electronic transmission of the result is not supported by law.
“Section 38 of the Electoral Acct 2022 referred to by the PDP and LP has nothing to do with transmission of election results. Section 60, subsection 2 of the Act deals with transmission of results and it is at the discretion of INEC. The Act does not contain any mandatory provision regarding the transmission of results.
“In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether realtime, two days later or at any time, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced right after the counting in the presence of the parties’ agents and to the hearing of the voters.
“It is, therefore, nonsensical to insinuate that time variation in uploading results would cause a change in the figures. “The 2023 Presidential election is a watershed as it produced unprecedented outcomes and defied conventions. The deployment and use of BVAS is the only reason the elections produced these strange outcomes and upsets in many cases.
"The loss of Katsina and Lagos to PDP and LP respectively were contrary to expectations.
"BVAS brought the intended credibility to voters’ accreditation such that many Governors and well-established politicians lost elections in what should be safe bet areas.
"The era of ghost-voting and stuffing of ballot boxes is gone. As the experience in the last governorship election in Osun State has shown, over-voting would automatically lead to outright cancellation of the results of the polling units based on the provision of the new Electoral Act.
"The same PDP that is trying to pull the wool across the face of Nigerians was the culprit in the Osun State governorship election. Did they try to do it this time and it failed? Or did they do it in the areas they unexpectedly won? Did they have a grand plan to hack the INEC server if results were uploaded in real-time? Nigerians will soon find out.
“Contrary to the false claims of Atiku and Obi, the reasons for losing the elections were foretold. Besides the delusional expectations created during the campaigns to hoodwink the public, most PDP leaders knew their party had been decimated by Mr. Peter Obi.
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Asocio-political lobby group, Movement for the Liberation of Plateau State, has hinted, ahead of the March 11 Governorship Election that residents of the state are unanimous in their resolve and determination to vote for the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Caleb Mutfwang, come Election Day.
This resolve is coming on the heels of the impressive performance of the PDP in last Saturday's Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The group has, accordingly, urged the people to come out en masse and vote for the PDP governorship candidate for the protection and liberation of the state from bondage and the clutches of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC). Chairman of the Group, Simon Dung, and the Secretary, Peter Zita, in a press statement in Jos, said their decision to support Mutfwang of the PDP was borne out of a need for freedom and unity, as well as to place the state firmly on the path of steady growth, development and rediscovery.
The statement said, "It is on record that the performance of the PDP) in last Saturday's National Assembly elections has left no one in doubt that Plateau is a PDP state. The party needs the support of all patriotic citizens in Plateau State to win the March 11 governorship election to end the APC misgovernance in the state.
"It is heartwarming to note that based on the official results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP won Plateau North and Plateau South Senatorial seats and 5 out of the 8 seats for the House of Representatives in the state. "Information available to us shows that the PDP is coasting to victory at the Plateau Central Senatorial election, whose result is yet to be announced by the INEC due to alleged incidents of overvoting and mutilation of results sheets brought from one of the Local Government Areas.
"It is on this account that a Coalition of Plateau citizens under the aegis of ‘Movement for the Liberation of Plateau’, reviewed the outcome of the last election and decided to settle down for the PDP Governorship candidate, Barr. Caleb Mutfwang. We appeal to all patriotic residents of Plateau State to put behind party and ethnic sentiments and settle down for the PDP in the March election for the prosperity of our state."
According to the group, although the result of the presidential election as announced by INEC does not reflect the desire and expectations of Nigerians, there is a need for plateau citizens to come out en masse and support the PDP candidate to end the self-centred APC administration that has caused several setbacks for the state.
"We wish to encourage all Plateau citizens and other ethnic nationalities resident in Plateau that the time has come for us to be united and take political decisions with regard to who will lead us in the next four years. We cannot afford to divide ourselves ahead of the next election. Enough of the APC misrule in Plateau," it concluded.