Kingsley Moghalu, a former presidential aspirant under the platform of the African Democratic Congress, on Friday described the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in last Saturday’s elections as unimpressive.
INEC, following the just concluded election had come under heavy criticism over its conduct with many protesting the process was marred by operational failures including malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and late arrival of election materials to the polling units.
There were also reports of result manipulations, voter suppression, and intimidation, among others during the exercise.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party had described the process as a rape of democracy and vowed to challenge the outcome in court.
The former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who reacted to the development on his Twitter handle, further described the low turnout of voters during the elections as disappointing, while demanding the overhaul of institutions handling elections in Nigeria.
Moghalu wrote: “My take on the election outcome: Without prejudice to whoever would have won, @inecnigeria ‘s performance was woeful. The institution and election management in Nigeria need a complete overhaul. Elections must be made logistically efficient and transparent.
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“The 28% turnout, being even lower that the 34% of the 2019 election is deeply disappointing. This phenomenon needs a separate interrogation to understand why it happened when 87 million voters collected their PVCs. Such voter turnout levels undermine the meaning of democracy.
“Kudos to the youth of Nigeria who turned out enthusiastically to vote for their candidates. You have altered the trajectory of politics in Nigeria, whatever disappointments you may have with the process or the outcome notwithstanding.
“There’ll be legal fireworks from the candidates aggrieved at the outcome. That is their right, and no one should begrudge them that. I salute them all. Meanwhile, @officialABAT’s first statement was quite statesmanly. He reached out to his opponents and to Nigerians broadly.
“It is early days post-election. I reserve further comment except to say that Nigeria is now officially a 3-party dominant system, with @NgLabour and @PeterObi’s frankly impressive performance as a first-time presidential candidate. He should build on it.”
