TheCable

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has nothing to hide regarding the conduct of the 2023 elections.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, spoke with media stakeholders in Lagos during a review of the 2023 polls.

Yakubu said the elections recorded many positives despite the challenges encountered.

The INEC chairman said there would be continuous improvements in future elections.

“This is an opportunity for the media executives in their various organisations to tell us what you have seen and how we can continue to improve on the electoral process in the future,” he said.

“The commission has nothing to hide and it is this type of interaction that we will continuously improve on for future elections.

“Clearly, there are many positives coming from the general elections and at the same time we admit that there were many challenges in the last election.

“There are several election litigations at the various election tribunals nationwide, while we should be careful not to touch on issues that are clearly subjudice.”

He said the commission, in addition to what it did in Abuja, would listen to the media executives about the outcome of elections at local and community levels.

He said it is through these interactions and discussions with the media that the commission can widen the scope of consultations on the elections.

Yakubu said INEC would like to know what constraints the media experienced from the process of accreditation, access to polling units and collation centres during the elections.

He said the commission would also want to get appraisals on security arrangements.

Yakubu said the commission may approach the national assembly to amend the laws, in order to accommodate Nigerians that were unable to vote due to the nature of their jobs.

“For instance, there were many Nigerians that did not have the opportunity to vote on election day simply because our laws say that you can only vote where you are registered,” he said.

“So most of the journalists on the election day worked in places other than where they are registered so they don’t have the opportunity to vote.

“This doesn’t apply only to journalists, it also applies to officials of INEC itself; the regular and ad-hoc officials, including the security agencies.

“So through this kind of interactions, we get recommendations coming from stakeholders and see in what area we are going to approach the national assembly to amend the laws.”