2023: INEC has no candidate in elections — Chairman
As it primarily cares about the electoral process, the Independent National Electoral Commission has stated that it will not promote any political party or candidate in the next elections.
According to a video posted on the Commission’s Twitter account on Sunday, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of INEC, announced this in an address to Supervisory Presiding Officers for the general election of 2023 in Abuja.
Yakubu encouraged election officials to remain impartial as well.
He asked them to view their work as an equal stakeholder in the country as a whole rather than as a service to INEC.
“INEC is not a political party. INEC has no candidate in the election. Our commitment is to the process and we will make sure that the process is what we say it should be so that the choice made by Nigerians will determine the outcome of the process,” he said.
Yakubu urged the SPOs to maintain the integrity of the process, describing their work as essential to the success of the general election in 2023.
“You are the people who supervise those who will work at the most important level, the Polling Unit level. That is the only place where voting takes place.
“The collation officers at the polling units level are collating results from the PUs. When collation officers at the PU go to the local government level, they are collating results from the PUs.
“When it goes to the state level they are collating results from the PUs and when they come to Abuja, where we collate the presidential result it would have passed through all these processes.
“So, by the time the results come to Abuja, Nigerians would have known the outcome of the election,” he said.
Yakubu added, “Our responsibility is simply to collate.”
He said that all 50 states and the federal capital territory were conducting the training at the same time.
According to the INEC chairman, the training provided additional assurance to Nigerians that the Commission was prepared to hold elections on February 25 and March 11.
