According to the Lagos State Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) received a 70% rating for its conduct during the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on Saturday.
While Mr Mobolaji Olusegun, the state Chairman of IPAC, commended INEC, he also noted that there were several challenges that needed to be addressed to ensure a credible election.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, Olusegun stated that there were issues such as the late arrival of election materials and malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) at some polling units that needed to be corrected before the March 11 gubernatorial and state legislative elections.
Despite the commendation, Olusegun emphasized the importance of INEC addressing these issues to ensure that the upcoming elections are conducted in a fair and credible manner.
” I can only score INEC 70 per cent for these elections, though they have tried to improve on everything they are doing, the system is still not as perfect as it ought to be.
“With the BVAS, I expected a much more stable and more coordinated system, the result collation should not take this long with the BVAS in place,” he said.
Olusegun advised the INEC to upgrade the (BVAS) for seamless vote counting and transmission.
He said the system could be better perfected such that money spent on electoral materials could be channelled toward the upgrade of the BVAS.
According to him, the BVAS should be upgraded to enable the electorate to accredit, vote and automatically count and transmit online for everyone to access.
He noted that the upgrade was important and should be done promptly to guard against the reoccurrence of similar hitches in upcoming elections.
“The electoral law allows us to go digital in voting and if it does not, let us amend it. It costs less and it will be less stressful.
“If the BVAS was made to transmit the result, the situation wouldn’t have been like this, we should have the result online and even a situation room.
“The BVAS technology is not yet perfected and should be upgraded for a seamless electioneering process on March 11,” he said.
Olusegun further advised INEC to address logistic issues by contracting the movement of election materials to logistic companies within the country.
“I moved around during the elections to Agege, Ifako-Ijaiye, Alimosho and Ikeja, aside from the issue of the late arrival of election materials and malfunctioning of BVAS, I saw the environment fair and peaceful.
“We only need to improve on technology so let INEC put its house in order to guard against the reoccurrence of similar challenges.
“They should put their report together, assess their errors and make corrections ahead of March 11,” he advised. (NAN)