CODE wants INEC unbundled, says 2023 polls record 27% turnout

The Connected Development (CODE) Tuesday called for unbundling of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to correct some of the irregularities witnessed in this year’s general elections. Executive Director CODE, Hamzat Lawal, made the call in Abuja at the organisation’s post-election briefing of the 2023 general elections. He said unbundling INEC would make the work […]

The Connected Development (CODE) Tuesday called for unbundling of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to correct some of the irregularities witnessed in this year’s general elections.

Executive Director CODE, Hamzat Lawal, made the call in Abuja at the organisation’s post-election briefing of the 2023 general elections.

He said unbundling INEC would make the work of the commission better as it would not be overwhelmed with the various segments of electioneering, thus deepening democracy and good governance in the country.

He said the general elections witnessed 27 per cent voter turnout, representing 24.9m persons out of the total 93.47m registered voters.

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He said this was due to several factors, including violence, intimidation, fake news and vote trading, among others.

“According to data collected from Uzabe, there were massive cases of violence and voter suppression in states like Kano, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Lagos, Ogun, Imo, Enugu, Abia, Kogi and Benue.

“Our statistics show that there were 30 cases of ballot box hijacking across the country in the gubernatorial election, an increase from the previous election; specific results show Ahoada West LGA in Rivers State, Oshodi/Isolo LGA in Lagos State just to mention a few. Cases were also recorded in Bayelsa and Delta.”

He also said that though the 2022 Electoral Act was a good amendment, it sadly did not meet expectations because of human interference in its implementation.

He urged the INEC to work on the process of the transmission of election results electronically as some results uploaded on the IReV are not clear enough.

He, however, commended INEC for the improvement in its logistics deployment during Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections.