The Independent National Election Commission, (INEC) has dismissed insinuations that all elections conducted since the assumption of office by the present Commission have been inconclusive. The Commission said it conducted 139 elections which were concluded.
The clarification and figures were contained in a press statement signed and issued yesterday (Tuesday 23rd August) by the Acting Secretary to the Commission, Musa H. Adamu, in response to a statement credited to the outgoing president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Augustine Alegeh (SAN), while addressing participants at the opening of the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, on Sunday, 21st August 2016.
The press statement said “Mr. Alegeh was reported to have rebuked the Commission for having conducted one hundred and thirty six (136) inconclusive elections in the past one year under the watch of Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
The statement read: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seldom takes issues with members of the public. But the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is a highly distinguished and respected and respected person. Besides, he represents a knowledgeable and influential constituency. His pronouncements are therefore weighty and could pass for the gospel truth”.
To correct the grossly incorrect statement, the Commission explained that: “the Commission has thus far concluded 139 elections (118 at first ballot and 21 after supplementary) out of a total of 163 scheduled elections and that 22 elections were suspended due to violence while 2 elections are sub-judice”.
It further explained that “this shows that 72.3 percent of the elections were concluded at the first ballot, 21.8 percent of the inconclusive elections were concluded after supplementary; 1.2 percent are pending; while 13.4 percent were suspended in Rivers state due to violence”.
The Commission regretted that Mr. Alegeh’s pronouncement was ill informed and that his stern rebuke was misplaced and undeserved.
The Commission while assuring that it remained unwavering and irrevocably committed to delivering elections that are free, fair and credible, maintained that “inconclusive elections are caused by violence and over-voting and that the notion of inconclusive election is not strange to our law (see Section 26 and 53 of Electoral Act 2010 as amended).
See text of full press statement please click on the link below:
The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission
