The European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria (EU EOM) has revealed that lack of transparency in the 2023 general election deflated public trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In a report released 48 hours after the elections, the EU noted that the confidence earlier had in INEC’s independence, professionalism and voter information efforts decreased even before February 25.Trans

While the EU acknowledged that the election took place as planned, it said that operational failures, which challenged the right to vote, contributed to the reduced trust in the process.

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The report also noted that the ongoing fuel scarcity and cash crunch drastically affected INEC’s operational capacity, and that insecurity and pockets of attacks in some local government areas hindered preparations and instilled fear in voters.

“Overall, INEC lacked efficient planning and transparency during critical stages of the electoral process, while on election day, trust in INEC was seen to further reduce due to delayed polling processes and information gaps related to much anticipated access to results on its Results Viewing Portal (IReV),” revealed the report.

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“Weak points include a lack of INEC empowerment to enforce sanctions for electoral offences and breaches of campaign finance rules. Positively, INEC benefited from more timely financing than for previous contests.

“The introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IReV for the 2023 elections was perceived as an important step to ensure the integrity and credibility of elections.

“However, delayed training of technical personnel, an inadequate mock testing exercise, and a lack of public information on the election technologies diminished expectations and left room for speculation and uncertainty.

“During the early stages of collation, presidential result forms from polling units were not displayed on the IReV, while Senate and House of Representative results were slowly published.”

Meanwhile, many Nigerians have registered their dissatisfaction with the electoral commission for purported discrepancies in the election results.

Earlier on Monday, Senator Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) agent walked out of the national collation centre for the presidential election in Abuja.

The duo left the centre in protest against INEC’s alleged attempt to manipulate results.