A Chieftain of the Action Alliance party, Dr. Samuel Adeyemi who doubles as the National Chairman Board of Trustees of the Party has sent a passionate appeal to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu to authorize the re opening of the INEC portal for the uploading of the remaining National Assembly candidates for the 2023 elections. Anything short of this is an invitation to Anarchy.
He confirmed that none of the 18 political Parties was able to upload all their candidates within the few days the portal was opened.
He said several reasons were responsible for this woeful performance of all the parties during the uploading process. Chief among them were:
1. The delay in the despatch of the collated primary election results from the various States to the National headquarters of the Parties in Abuja.
2. The National grid collapse during the period which adversely affected the electricity supplies to base stations of internet providers resulting in very slow internet speed or outright collapse.
3. The shear volume of documents to be uploaded by Parties from 37 locations which was simply gargantuan. This was the first time exclusive online submission will be used for any general election. Hitherto it has only been used for off cycle elections.
4. The instability of the portal to allow hundreds of users uploading huge documents at the same time.
5. Even several of the successfully uploaded candidates were no where to be found in the names released by INEC.
No explanation has been given for that from INEC.
As a matter of hind sight, INEC could have allowed a mixture of hardcopy and online submission for this initial deployment in order to address the identified shortcomings.
No Party was able to upload the full list of it’s candidates.
It is therefore imperative that a fresh window of opportunity be opened to the 18 parties to finish their upload the outstanding successful candidates at the various primaries conducted under INEC supervision at the various locations Nationwide.
It will amount to serious injustice and chaos nationwide across all the registered Political Parties if the candidates got to know that their names were omitted from the list released by INEC due to no fault of theirs.
He concluded by assuring the commission that a mere 2 days extension can resolve all the lingering issues that is trying to intimidate the electoral process.
Dr. Adeyemi is hopeful that INEC will be supported by the government and the populace to ensure a vastly improved electoral process that will be acceptable to all and sundry.