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The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has provided the reason for its decision to declare the result of the 2023 presidential election in the middle of the night.
The electoral umpire announced Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the presidential election with 8,794,726 votes, ahead of his challengers, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi.
INEC, led by Professor Mahmood Yakubu, declared Tinubu’s victory on Wednesday, March 1, at about 2 am before the media.
Most Nigerians who awaited eagerly for the result to be declared had to wake up to it. The timing of the announcement raised concerns among some citizens, especially those whose political parties were on the losing end.
Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, while fielding questions from the INEC Press Corps on Friday, explained that Nigeria is treated as a single constituency during the presidential election, thereby requiring a detailed process of collating results from ward, local government, states and national levels.
He explained that the chairman had to wait for the 36 returning officers from across the country, including those from distant locations like Sokoto and Maiduguri, to present their results in Abuja as required by law.
He stated that the constitution or Electoral Act does not specify a particular time for declaring election results.
According to him: “In a presidential election, the country is treated as one constituency. Results are declared at polling units, then collated at the ward, local government, and state levels before being presented in Abuja to the Chief Electoral Commissioner,” he said. People didn’t understand this and criticised the 2 am announcement.
“The chairman had to wait for the 36 returning officers, including those from distant locations, to present their results. The electoral act requires that results be brought and the returning officers be interviewed. The chairman questions the returning officers. Only after accepting all figures from the returning officers and the FCT can results be collated and announced. The delay led to claims that we declared results in the middle of the night.
“However, Prof. Attahiru Jega declared the 2015 results around 4 am. The constitution does not prescribe a specific time for declaring election results.”
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