The Independent Electoral Commission has postponed to opening of the national collation center to 11am Monday morning. The commission had earlier told reporters that the collation center will be opening bu 6pm on Sunday 24th February 2019.
With this shift, Nigerian’s are concerned about what could happen to the results in the intervening hours. According to Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the reason for the postponement was because no state returning officer had gotten to Abuja with their results.
In a different post, a concerned Nigerian, Jude Ndukwe had made a suggestion to INEC. He said “It was not easy, but Nigerians braved the odds, including intimidation and threats to their life, to come out and cast their votes for their preferred candidates at the 2019 presidential/national assembly elections, it is now the turn of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to live up to its billings by announcing the results immediately as they come in so as to avoid the immense and intense pressure being allegedly mounted on them by leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC to manipulate the entire process including result collation and announcement, in their favour and against the will of the people.”
There is no doubt that announcing the results as they are gotten reduces the chances of post vote tampering. By extending the process of collation by over 15 hours, INEC has opened themselves up to undue pressure and possible result tampering across the country.
Nigerian’s however have no choice but to wait till tomorrow to begin to hear the results, hoping that they won’t be tampered with.