2023 GENERAL ELECTION

The 2023 general election of the federal republic of Nigeria to elect the President, Vice President, members of the Senate and House of Representatives has finally come and gone as the electoral commission INEC declared Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu popularly known as “Jagaban” of the ruling party’s All-Progressive Congress (APC) winner of the presidential election with a certificate of return duly issued to him. The presidential election was keenly contested by Labor Party’s (LP) Peter Obi and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar.

The election which was held on the 25^th of February 2023 across the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) was reported mostly on social media to be characterized by low voter turnout, disenfranchisement, election malpractices, ballot snatching, violence and vote buying in some areas. There were also social media reports of underage voting, and voters being harassed by thugs to vote for candidates who were not obviously their choice.

The electoral commission INEC had promised before the elections to deploy its newly acquired technology “Bi-modal voter accreditation system” also known as  BVAS for voter accreditation and immediate transmission of results from each polling unit to the INEC portal. The electoral body (INEC) was lauded for this innovation as everyone wanted their vote to count and also looked forward to a free and fair election with the deployment of the BVAS.

The use of BVAS for voter verification and authentication is a mandatory provision of section 47(2) of the electoral act 2022 and every registered voter must undergo the process of accreditation. It is also mandatory according to sections 50,60 and 64 of the electoral act 2022 for the commission to upload directly from polling unit level results and the accreditation data to the INEC viewing portal.

As reported on various social media platforms, there we alteration of results by pen and in some cases correcting fluid.  At the time results were being released at the national collation center, the INEC portal was blank and results that were managed to be uploaded were blurry with observed errors.

Upon final declaration of the results, there have been numerous complaints by aggrieved parties and litigations will come up as a result of the observed irregularities amongst which are;

1. None utilization of BVAS in accordance with the electoral act
2. Over voting
3. fraud and violence
4. The provision of the law which stipulates 25% of a majority vote in at least 24 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

While the winners and the winning party are jubilating citing credible, free, and fair process, some parties, groups, persons, and especially the youths who were majorly championing for Labour Party have rejected the results and have taken to the streets to peacefully protest the outcome of the election.  

The presidential candidate of the Labor party’s {LP} Peter Obi and that of the people’s Democratic Party {PDP} Atiku Abubakar have commenced legal proceedings while other notable persons including the Ex-President Obasanjo have called for the cancellation of the result citing various irregularities.

As the nation awaits the swearing-in of the president-elect and the related dividend of democracy, the coming days will be remarkable as election results will be put to test in our law court.