INEC dismisses reports on planned manipulation of 2023 elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed reports on the planned manipulation of the 2023 general elections.

The commission made the clarification in a statement issued on Friday by its National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye.

There were insinuations that the commission had concluded plans to abandon the electronic transmission of election results and other initiatives designed to improve the country’s electoral process.

The statement read: “Our attention has been drawn to reports in a section of the media of alleged plans by the Commission to rig the 2023 General Election by abandoning the direct and real-time electronic upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing portal by the Registration Area Technical Support Staff.

READ ALSO: ECOWAS tasks INEC on peaceful conduct of 2023 elections

“The claim is patently false. The Commission has repeatedly reassured Nigerians that it will transmit results directly from the polling units as we witnessed in Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections and 103 more constituencies where off-cycle Governorship/FCT Area Council elections and bye-elections were held since August 2020. The results can still be viewed on the portal.

“The IReV is one of the innovations introduced by the Commission to ensure the integrity and credibility of election results in Nigeria. It is therefore inconceivable that the Commission will turn around and undermine its own innovations.

“The public is advised to ignore the reports. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and IReV have come to stay for voter accreditation and uploading of polling unit results in real-time in Nigeria.”

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