March 18 Polls: INEC Finally Reacts to Labour Party’s Request on Use of BVAS, Reveals Position
- The nation's electoral umpire has reiterated its purpose in the country ahead of the 2023 governorship election
- This is as the Independent National Electoral Commission declared that political parties cannot monitor its activities or give the commission orders
- The commission made this assertion while reacting to the Labour Party's request to monitor its activities, especially the use of BVAS and IReV to upload results, during the forthcoming guber polls
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that political parties cannot serve as a watchdog of the activities of the nation's electoral umpire.
The INEC national commissioner and chairman of the information and voter education committee, Festus Okoye, who said this on Sunday night, March 12, explained that the commission was created to serve as a regulator for political parties, but the reverse seems to be the case.
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INEC replies to LP's request, sends message to other parties ahead of guber polls
Okoye insisted that the Labour Party (LP)'s request to monitor the commission’s process of reconfiguring and backing up results on its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines (BVAS) would not be granted, a report by The Punch confirmed on Monday, March 13.
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“On the issue of a political party saying they want to come and look at our cloud, IReV or into the brain of the BIVAS, the commission will not allow that to happen," he noted.
New fact emerges to verify if INECs IReV portal shows Peter Obi won 2023 presidential election in 19 states
Meanwhile, the trending claim that the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won 19 states in the February 25 poll has been considered misleading, according to Dubawa, a Nigerian fact-checking organisation.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra state, came third in the presidential poll with over six million votes.
He got the highest votes in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but they were not enough to make him win as he lost to the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, who polled over eight million votes.
Court orders INEC to upload results from polling units to IReV
Meanwhile, the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered INEC to electronically upload the results of the March 11 governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Lagos state from the polling units to the IReV.
Justice Peter Lifu granted the order while delivering judgment in a suit filed by the Labour Party, its governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and 40 others.
The plaintiffs had sought an order of Mandamus to compel INEC to obey the Electoral Act and its guidelines for conducting the elections.
Source: Legit.ng
