PAACA knocks political parties for ‘not using’ INEC innovations to improve elections’ credibility

The Peering Advocacy and Advancement Center in Africa (PAACA), a civil society organisation (CSO), has criticised political parties and their agents for “failing” to leverage innovations introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve elections’ credibility.

Speaking in Yola, the capital of Adamawa, on Wednesday during a one-day citizens town hall meeting on electoral reforms, Ezenwa Nwagwu, PAACA executive director, said party agents usually fail to cross-check election results at polling units with what INEC uploads on its portal.

“Party agents who have polling unit election results in their hands often pocket them instead of using them to cross-check what INEC uploads,” he said.

“The overall voting, counting, and collation processes in Nigeria remain manual. The manually collated results at polling units are entered manually into form EC8a.

“Form EC8A is captured as a photo using the BVAS machine and transmitted to the INEC Electronic Result Viewing (IREV) portal after political party agents and security personnel (police) have been handed manual copies.”

“Why are politicians not collating the results given at polling units to verify what INEC uploads? IREV is not a collation centre—it is a viewing centre.”

He added that political parties are fully capable of participating in the process and ensuring transparency by comparing the results uploaded from polling units with the manually collated ones.

Nwagwu noted the crucial role of voter education in sustaining democracy in Nigeria, saying that an informed electorate is essential for democratic governance, as it enables citizens to make informed decisions at the polls.

He explained that voter education encompasses more than just understanding the voting process, saying that it also involves civic education, which conveys knowledge of a country’s political system and context.

“One of the things that happens is that people talk about elections as if it is an all-comers affair. But election processes must be understood,” he said.

Nwagwu asked citizens, political parties, media, and CSOs to understand the provisions of the Electoral Act to enhance electoral credibility.

While acknowledging improvements in Nigeria’s electoral system, he noted that more work is needed.

“Our elections are improving. But we are not following the improvements that are taking place,” he said.

“Every system that sees improvement also has room for further enhancement. We want citizens to identify specific areas that require more reforms. For instance, INEC’s logistics remain a challenge. Polls do not open on time—what can be done to improve this?”

Also speaking, Bulila Daniel, who represented the National Orientation Agency (NOA), at the meeting said it is important to enlighten citizens on their responsibilities to the country and also the role of government.

He tasked Nigerians to continue to engage in the electoral process and strengthen the country’s democracy.

The meeting, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, drew participants from CSOs, political parties, security agencies, INEC, NOA, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), and the media.