Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC and Chief Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, has explained the delay in collating presidential election results, promising to begin by 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Yakubu made the announcement while officially launching the National Collation Centre at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja.
“As we await the arrival of the State Collation Officers for the Presidential Election SCOPE, will now take a break and resume at 6pm. We are certain that by 6pm, one or two of the SCOPEs will arrive with the results. So we begin the process of collation. I thank you very much. We will resume at 6pm”, he said.
On the delay in the collation of results, Yakubu said the process has to go through four levels.
He said; “Coalition of presidential election results in Nigeria is done at four levels after the conclusion of voting, counting, recording of results at the various polling units, the results are collated at the 8,809 registration areas or wards.
“The collated ward level results are tallied and collated at the 774 local government areas nationwide.
“Thereafter, they are tallied and collated in each of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
“The collated figures for each state and the Federal Capital Territory are finally collated here in Abuja where the announcement of the outcome of the election will be made by the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, who also doubles are the Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Federation. And this is a duty that I am privileged to perform and it would be done here.