A total of 24,353 candidates nominated by 91 political parties contested the 2019 general elections, according to a report on the review of the election presented on Friday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The elections took place in 1,558 constituencies spread across 119,973 polling units and 57,023 voting points across the country.
Besides, 821,686 ad hoc staff were engaged for the elections while the Commission accredited 71,256 domestic and international observers as well as 11,250 domestic and international journalists for the polls.
The report which covers the outcome of internal debriefing meetings and external engagements with electoral stakeholders held from 28th May to 12th July, 2019, was presented to Electoral Stakeholders by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
He said the aim of the report was “to evaluate the Commission’s actions, processes and procedures before, during and after the election.”
Following the conclusion of the elections, INEC constituted two committees each headed by a National Commissioner.
The first Committee led by Barrister Festus Okoye, the Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), was saddled with the responsibility of producing the official account of the conduct of the 2019 general election while the second chaired by Dr. Muhammed Lecky, Chairman of the Planning, Monitoring and Strategy Committee (PMSC), was charged with the responsibility of producing a report on the review of the election based on the outcome of the Commission’s Retreats and Stakeholder.
The INEC chairman said the second report, which was presented yesterday, examines in detail the key activities, preparations and challenges associated with the conduct of the 2019 General Election ranging from registration of new political parties, conduct of continuous voter registration, monitoring of party primaries, candidate nomination process and party campaigns, the recruitment and training of ad-hoc staff and the accreditation of election observers and party agents.
It also “focuses on the preparation and delivery of the election in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT” as well as challenges associated with the preparation and conduct of the election, lessons learnt and specific recommendations for addressing them.
