2023: INEC Says Buhari’s Successor Will Be Solely Determined By Voters

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reassured Nigerians that the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, amongst others, would be solely determined by the direct choices of the people.

Nigerians will be heading to the polls on February 25 to elect President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor. While the 2023 presidential and national assembly elections have been scheduled to take place on February 25, governorship and state assembly elections will hold on March 11, 2023.

At the conclusion of INEC’s ongoing clean-up of the national voter register, about 95 million Nigerians would have been captured on the register.

The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, assured that the technological innovations introduced to the country’s electoral system will guarantee credible elections in 2023.

Yakubu spoke at the 6th annual conference of the Guild Of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) with the “2023 Elections: Managing The Process For Credible Outcome” held at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja-Lagos, on Thursday.

“I wish to restate once again the commitment of INEC to credible elections. Votes will continue to count and will be the sole determinant of electoral outcome. For this reason, the Commission has introduced many new innovations, supported by the deployment of appropriate technology, to protect the sanctity of the choice made by Nigerians at the polls ranging from voter registration to voter accreditation and result management. The deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) with its dual fingerprint and facial biometric accreditation process has ensured that only genuine voters are accredited to vote during election. This has curtailed the incidence of multiple voting and other sharp practices associated with voter accreditation during elections. The BVAS has come to stay and will be the only means by which voters will be accredited in the 2023 General Election.

“Furthermore, the introduction of the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal has made the result management procedure more transparent. Polling Unit results are now uploaded in real-time to the IReV portal for public view. This has enhanced the transparency, credibility and consequently public confidence in the outcome of elections. The IReV has come to stay and polling unit results will be uploaded to the portal in real-time in the 2023 General Election,” he said.

Following the official commencement of campaigns on September 28, INEC has published the final list of 15,322 candidates for contesting for 1,491 seats under 18 political parties.

The elections to be held include one presidential, 28 governorship, 109 senatorial, 360 house of representatives, and 993 state assembly polls.

Yakubu urged political parties and their candidates to respect the terms contained in Peace Accord they recently signed, stressing that they must show commitment to peaceful campaigns.

He added, “For our part, the Commission will pay particular attention to the conduct of parties, candidates and their supporters. As a regulator, the Commission will play its role to ensure compliance with the provision of the law as well as our guidelines and regulations. We will pay particular attention to peaceful campaign devoid of abusive, intemperate and slanderous language as well as the use of innuendoes or insinuations likely to provoke a counter-reaction resulting in the breach of the peace. Similarly, we will pay special attention to the observance of limits on party and candidate finance. I urge political parties and candidates to carefully study the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and familiarise themselves with their obligations as well as the penalties under the law.”

On expectations of the media, Yakubu said “Managing the electoral process for credible outcome is the responsibility of all of us. As campaign activities get underway, the media will continue to play an important role. A lot of the activities will take place in the media of which the new media is a critical player. We must continue to work together against the spread of fake new, misinformation and disinformation that seek to create or exacerbate tension or de-legitimise processes and outcomes.

“GOCOP must lead a network or alliance of stakeholders to curb fake news engineered by unpatriotic individuals. Fake news is a threat to national security and all hands must be on deck to check it. Managing this process requires in part, concerted efforts. We have noticed that your members have so far steered clear of fake news. We urge you to do more. GOCOP should come out strongly in the battle against fake news which is clearly a challenge to the electoral process going forward. We are happy to note that you have your peer review mechanism using your leaders to regularly remind every member of the need for credible journalism. This is highly commendable. We urge you extend this beyond GOCOP to serve as a bulwark against the menace of fake news.”