The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released a report on the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
The release of the report is contained in a statement signed by the national commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Sam Olumekun.
The statement reads: “On Thursday, 22nd February 2024, the Commission convened for its weekly meeting, where the 2023 General Election Report was reviewed and approved for publication.
“In keeping with our tradition over the last four electoral cycles, and our commitment to transparency, we are pleased to announce the release of the official INEC report on the 2023 General Election.
“This comprehensive 526-page document, structured into 13 chapters and enhanced with 60 tables, 14 boxes, and 10 graphs, offers an in-depth analysis of the election’s key processes, achievements, and challenges, alongside valuable lessons learned.
“The Report showcases the election’s unparalleled diversity in party representation, demonstrating significant democratic progress.
Meanwhile, the initial reports suggesting that the delay in uploading presidential election results during the 2023 general election stemmed from an attempted hacking of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC )Election Viewing (IREV) portal, the commission has clarified that the delays were due to an unforeseen configuration issue in integrating the presidential election upload into the system.
In a 526-page report on the conduct of the 2023 general elections, the Commission said that apart from the challenges experienced from uploading results of the presidential election, the currency swap and fuel scarcity within the period also impacted negatively on the elections.
It said even though the configuration problems experienced at the commencement of result upload were immediately addressed, further delays arose as a result of the Polling Officers either switching off their devices or leaving their locations, making it difficult for their IREV to communicate with the device.
It said that in addition, several results that were scanned earlier before the glitch queued up for upload, making the system slow, thereby delaying some of the uploads till the following day
It said that in the build-up to the elections, the Commission suffered over 50 attacks on its buildings and facilities in various LGAs and State Offices across 15 States of the federation leading to losses in terms of vehicles, office equipment and election materials.
END.