Nigeria’s two largest opposition parties have demanded that the country’s presidential election be called off due to allegations that the electoral commission, INEC, did not follow the law in the collation and announcement of results.
The PDP and the LP made their positions clear at a press conference on Tuesday, which was attended by their vice-presidential candidates, Ifeanyi Okowa and Datti Baba-Ahmed, respectively.
“The election was a sham, and it was never free and fair,” said Mr Okowa of the PDP, a view shared by the LP’s vice-presidential candidate.
Their main complaint is that INEC failed to upload election results from over 170,000 polling units to a central server (IReV) as required by law. They should have done that before collating and announcing the results.
At the press conference, the two parties also demanded that INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu step down due to what they called electoral irregularities and malfeasance. INEC has since responded, stating that its chairman will not resign and that any party unhappy with the election process should file a complaint with the appropriate authorities.
The two opposition parties claimed at a press conference on Thursday that they “monitored with dismay the travesty to democracy that was exhibited at the National Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
They claimed that the results announced by INEC thus far have some irregularities and accused the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, of purposefully refusing to “respect the pre-existing regulations that the result of this election shall be uploaded on the INEC server via the Bio-modal Voter Accreditation System technology.”
So far, the PDP and LP have received roughly half of the votes cast in the presidential election. However, they all trail the APC, which has so far led in the presidential election results.
The APC, as well as the majority of the other 18 presidential candidates, have expressed confidence in the process and urged INEC not to be distracted.
