The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has said the electronic transmission of election results must be included in the proposed electoral law, so as to guarantee the integrity of the 2023 general elections.
Consequently, the coalition called on members of the National Assembly conference committee, saddled with the task of harmonizing the two versions of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, passed by two chambers, to ensure the inclusion of electronic transmission of results in the expected electoral law.
The spokesman of the CUPP, Ikenga Ugochinyere, who made the call at a press briefing, in Abuja, on Wednesday, noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed that it has capacity to transmit election results electronically.
Ugochinyere accused the National Assembly of allegedly delaying the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, for partisan reasons.
He stated that Nigerians will resist any attempt to deprive INEC of its constitutionally guaranteed power to independently determine how elections should be conducted, or subject the electoral body ” to the political whims and caprices of the Nigerian Communications Commission”.
According to him, “this amendment commenced since 2016 and has not been completed 5 years after. The APC National Assembly members have agreed to drag this process and get up to their next year’s annual vacation by which time, whereupon a claim that by the ECOWAS treaty electoral laws cannot be amended less than six months to elections; the process will terminate like they did for the 2019 election but this time with possibility of throwing the country into constitutional crisis.”
Ugochinyere said posterity will not forgive the members of the National Assembly “if they remove the electronic transmission of results or if they refuse to complete this process within a reasonable time.”
