By Hosea Parah, Abuja

Connected Development (CODE)and its partners, have charged the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to address challenges experienced during the Feb. 25 election, ahead of the Governorship and Houses of Assembly Election.

Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive Officer, CODE, who spoke on behalf of the group said this when he presented the interim statement on the process and conduct the presidential and National Assembly elections in Abuja on Thursday.

Lawal said that the group deployed observers in polling units across the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs ) of the country as well as the Federal Capital Territory, saying that the findings raised concerns about the management of the election.

Lawal tasked INEC on swift deployment and early opening of polls, professional conduct of security personnel and INEC’s strict adherence to the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

He said that the BVAS should be used for biometric accreditation and electronic transmission of results from polling unit as stipulated by the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC 2023 Election guidelines for the conduct of election.

“The Governorship and State Assembly election is yet another opportunity for INEC to redeem her image, and earn the trust and confidence of the electorates in our electoral process.

“More importantly, INEC should ensure transparency of the result management and collation process and make certain that polling unit results are uploaded timely on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV).

“The Uzabe election observation mission was focused on the election day’s process; focusing on the quality of the election, with the notion that if the process is right, the outcome will be right and accepted by all.

“Drawing from these observations, CODE and her partners conclude that the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Election failed to meet the basic threshold of a credible election, as it failed short of Citizen’s expectations, INEC’s assurances, and benchmark of international election best practice,” Lawal said.

He said that the interim statement brought to light some of the discrepancies observed like delay in commencement of polls, low adherence to Electoral laws and slow or non upload of results among others.(NAN)