August 22, 2022 

 Civil Society Groups and prominent nigerians have cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to allow manipulation of the 2023 general election.

They warned that with the current level of political consciousness, Nigerians would not tolerate manipulation of next year’s general election.

This followed a pronouncement credited to the electoral umpire that the forthcoming polls would be manually collated.

However, the commission has reaffirmed that electronic transmission of election result has come to stay.

It gave the clarification in a statement entitled: “clarification on electronic transmission of election result,” signed by Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, in Abuja.

He said: “for clarity, the procedure for result transmission remains the same as in recent governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states. There will be no change in all future elections, including the 2023 general election.

Reacting further, the commission noted that; “the entire gamut of result management is provided for in sections 60, 62 and 64 of the electoral act 2022. In line with the provision of the law, the commission, in April this year, released a detailed clarification of the procedure for transmission, collation and declaration of result which was shared with all stakeholders and uploaded to their website.

Notwithstanding the clarification, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yiaga Africa, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Pat Utomi and others have tasked INEC on the need to ensure a free and fair poll.

chairman of tmg, auwal rafsanjani tasked the commission to provide clarity on its recent pronouncement to assuage the suspicions of the electorate and rebuild their confidence to exercise their rights to vote.