Few days to the governorship election in Kogi state, a socio-political group, Kogi Liberation Front (KLF), on Monday charged the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to be open and not frustrate the credibility of the election.
The group stated that a lot of information regarding the processes and procedures for the poll were still not in the open.
A statement signed by the coordinator and secretary of the group, Mr. Andrew Ichala and Comrade Agude Ameh, respectively, not to frustrate the credibility, openness and fairness of the election through its conspiracy of silence on critical issues such as the mode of transmission of election results, the implications of the recent Supreme Court judgment on its insistence on using card readers in the election.
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It added that the operational procedures to be employed for the collation of results from the polling units to the wards, local governments and state levels had also not been released, wondering how INEC could be silent on such key issues.
The KLF explained that it was dangerous that INEC has not told the world how results would be transmitted going by its position during that last presidential election petition tribunal matter between President Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that it does not have a server.
The group added that the silence of the electoral commission on the modality for voting, whether it was going to the 2019 model of simultaneous accreditation and voting or the 2019 model was worrisome, wondering whether the commission had been able to address the issue of recording disparity between votes and the number of accredited voters despite accreditation and voting taking place simultaneously.
The statement read: “INEC has come out to tell us that it would use card readers in the Kogi and Bayelsa elections, but it is frustrating that many critical questions have been left unanswered.
“For instance, what is the importance of the card readers to the elections when they are not legally recognised as declared by the judgement of the Supreme Court on the 2019 presidential election? How will the commission collate results, is it manually or electronically going by the revelation that it does not have a server?
“Has the commission weighed the implications of the recent supreme court judgment on these elections and what are the operational procedures to be utilised by INEC for the collation of election results from Polling Units to wards, local governments and state levels.
“All unanswered questions will affect the outcome of the polls and it will in the interest of the commission, based on its professed readiness to conduct a free and fair election, to provide answers before it is too late.”
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