2023 elections: Everything that was supposed to work worked except INEC – Dele Farotimi

Dele Farotimi, an author and political activist, has expressed his opinion that everything went smoothly during the presidential elections held on February 25, except for the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC’s spokesman, Festus Okoye had attributed the failure of the Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS) to transmit real-time election results to the commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to a “technical glitch.”

He defended the commission by stating that the IReV portal functioned effectively for the National Assembly, Governorship, and State Assembly elections.

The IReV and BVAS are new technologies implemented by INEC for voter accreditation and the electronic transmission of votes in this year’s elections. However, Nigerians were unable to view the results of the presidential election in real-time.

Reacting to this during an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday July 5, Farotimi said; 

“All the evidences are very clear and it showed very clearly that everything that should work on that day worked except INEC.”

“The integrity of INEC as an institution went on exile.”

“INEC is a public body established by law and bound to work according to the law. It advertised its guidelines…the advertisement of BVAS and IReV and everything. INEC was quite vociferous in explaining to Nigerians and assuring us of what would happen with the system.”

“In a sane environment where people are still governed by reason, the likes of Mr Festus Okoye should either have resigned or be somewhere writing a statement explaining to Nigerians what happened. Glitch? Is it a glitch in the human brain? A glitch in the technical system or a glitch occasioned by the complete shutdown of human conscience?” Farotimi added