Three political parties whose candidates participated in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls on Tuesday called for Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), chairman’s resignation.
The parties, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), equally called for the cancellation of the just-concluded general election, saying the 2023 presidential poll was marred by violence, rigging, and intimidation of voters.
They said this at a joint press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, pointing out that the process was “irretrievably compromised”.
Julius Abure, LP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, PDP Chairman, and Ralph Nwosu, their ADC counterpart, announced these at a joint press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, just as they claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials at polling units manipulated Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections by failing to electronically upload results to the Commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
Said Abure, who spoke on behalf of the LP, PDP and the ADC: “This election is not free and far from being fair… ongoing cancellation of results from areas of strength of the opposition parties”.
They declared a vote of no confidence on INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, and asked him to immediately step aside for an unbiased person to take over and conduct a fresh election.
The LP, PDP and ADC said the deliberate refusal of the INEC chairman to respect the upload of results electronically as stipulated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022 was unacceptable.
The three parties claimed that INEC’s preliminary results revealed “monumental disparities” between what party agents signed and what INEC officials announced in Abuja.
They alleged that the manual transmission of results jeopardised the election process’s integrity.
