TheCable

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed 12 noon on Monday for collation of results of the presidential and parliamentary election held across the country on Saturday and Sunday.

Making the announcement at the INEC headquarters in Abuja on Sunday, Nick Dazang, head, media and publicity of INEC said journalists were invited to cover it.

Earlier, while speaking to journalists, Jega had reiterated the commission’s resolve to announce the result of the election within 48 hours.

“In 2011 we declared the results within 48 hours, and we want to improve on that,” he said.

“We have been working assiduously to beat that record. We hope to declare it within 48 hours.”

He also disclosed that results had been collated in two states, including Ekiti, but explained that the actual tabulation of the results would not start until the resident electoral commissioners of each states were present at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

Attahiru Jega, chairman of INEC, noted that collation of results had already com‎menced in state offices and was “going on well”.

“The first collated results for the presidential election are expected at the national collation centre here in Abuja by this evening,” he said.

“Meanwhile, the commission warns strongly against premature publication or announcement of results by unauthorised persons‎ and media channels particularly online sites. Only INEC is empowered by law to announce results and it is an offence for anyone to preempt the commission in this regard.‎”

Speaking on the general conduct of the election, Jega commended Nigerians for turning out in large numbers to cast their votes on Saturday.

“The commission commends Nigerians for the resilience and remarkable understanding they exhibited in the face of these difficulties‎. We hope that good conduct will continue throughout the post-election period as well,” he said.

“We are pleased that the elections went on smoothly in a substantial number of polling units across the country, including the northeast where the commission was also able to conduct voting for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the three states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.

“It is also gratifying to note that the card readers worked well in the majority of the polling units, even though there were areas where difficulties experienced necessitated additional guidelines by the commission to allow for manual accreditation of voters, as announced yesterday.

“So far, Osun, Kebbi, Ekiti, Adamawa, Borno, Jigawa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states have reported reverting to manual-only accreditation of voters in some polling units. Investigations into what accounted for the difficulties encountered with the card readers are ongoing.

“As a result of the operational challenges experienced, elections could not be concluded yesterday in a few polling units and therefore these will be concluded today.

” According to the reports so far received, elections are being concluded today as follows: 90 polling units in La‎gos state, 16 polling units in Kebbi state, 25 polling units in Adamawa state, six polling units in Adamawa in Niger state, 37 polling units in Yobe state, eight polling units in Borno state, 37 polling units in Jigawa, 13 polling units in Kano, 116 polling units in Taraba state and two polling units in the FCT are affected.”