As the 2027 general election approaches, a pro democracy advocacy group, Yiaga Africa, has said that more than half of Nigerians do not trust the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) because of their experience with previous elections.
The Executive Director of the group, Samson Itodo, who spoke on Saturday in Abuja, said a situation in which conflicting results were emanating from the same polling unit during elections, or when officials subverted the will of the people, or results sheets were pre-filled, did not inspire voter confidence; many would not trust the commission.
“It’s very dangerous. It is clear from the survey that more than half of Nigerians do not trust INEC, and they don’t trust INEC for several reasons. One, it’s the way and manner, and their experience with previous elections.
“And so we are not surprised that this level of distrust does exist because of the experiences of voters. It’s not just INEC. “It’s also the conduct of the other actors within the election value chain, the security agencies, the judiciary, all of these actors, their conduct, inactions, or mismanagement of the electoral process, hurts the way citizens perceive elections.
“So, this level of distrust is there. You can feel it among the citizens. And this is why the current chairman of INEC has stated that INEC needs to do a better job of inspiring trust and confidence among Nigerians.
“And I think how the commission manages issues around logistics, how it manages results, collation, and transmission, how it manages political party registration matters a lot.
“Very soon, the primaries will begin. How INEC manages this nomination process, the primaries, and the congresses, it observes or monitors the list of candidates that it accepts from political parties.
“In a situation where INEC accepts a list of candidates from political parties when validly conducted primaries have not been held, it would really cast a blight on the integrity of the commission, and these are landmines that we hope that the current INEC chairman and the officials at INEC would take seriously.
“And I love the fact that the chairman has consistently since his assumption of office talked about the need to inspire trust and confidence, and we see it as an opportunity, but we’ve got to keep a close eye, because when you think about turnout at elections declining, you also need to think about how the actors are managing the electoral process, because it does impact on the levels of turnout.
“With no trust in the electoral process, do not expect any high turnout in the next elections,” he said.
Chuks Okocha
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