The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will conduct a post-election review of the 2023 general election on July 4, in accordance with its established practice.
News About Nigeria reports that Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, made this announcement in a statement released on Thursday in Abuja.
The review process comes after Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, defeating Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and other candidates.
However, both Atiku and Obi contested the election results declared by INEC and have taken their grievances to the court, challenging Tinubu’s victory.
According to Okoye, the post-election review will commence with a meeting of the Resident Electoral Commissioners on July 4 and will conclude with the Commission’s retreat on August 5.
The purpose of the review is to thoroughly examine all aspects of the electoral activities that took place before, during, and after the elections.
The aim is to learn valuable lessons from the process and devise strategies to improve future elections.
Okoye further stated that a comprehensive schedule of activities and timelines for the review process will be released shortly after the meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners on July 4, 2023.
The statement read in part “The review will commence with a meeting of the Resident Electoral Commissioners on 4th July 2023 and end with the Commission’s retreat on 5th August 2023.
“At the State level, the internal review will involve the Commission’s regular and ad hoc staff, including RECs, the 774 Electoral Officers, Heads of Departments, Administrative Secretaries as well as some Presiding Officers and Collation/Returning Officers.
“The external engagement will involve critical stakeholders such as political parties, security agencies, election observers, the media and service providers such as transporters that facilitated the movement of personnel and materials for the election.
“The review will focus on all aspects of the electoral activities before, during and after the elections. Specifically, the Commission welcomes actionable recommendations from stakeholders towards strengthening institutional capacity for the discharge of its responsibilities and the enhancement of processes and procedures.”
