Some time around middle of August, I was arguing with my friends, whether INEC was empowered by the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act to publish on their website, the fully detailed election results of all the positions for which elections were held, even down to the Polling-Unit results...
Thus, does the constitution empower the citizens to conveniently browse the INEC website for the election results and click into any L.G.A, or Ward, or even any polling unit of choice, and see the full detailed result for the House of Assembly election, or that of the Senatorial election in that same polling unit.??
..
Some of my friends argued that INEC only has the powers to conduct elections and then declare the winners, and nothing more. That they are not under any obligation to publish the whole results since the results from all the lower levels of collation could now be regarded as “Sensitive” or “Classified”, and thus, only the final results are necessary.
Others argued that it could be a tedious task for INEC, and thus, the least they can even publish is the L.G.A level results.
(We argued this topic just some few days before I bumped into a news publication by Premium Times that supported the fact that INEC should publish the fully detailed results down to the polling units.)
..
Nevertheless, before we read the full news article as published by Premium Times, I would need more opinions from fellow Nairalanders, and our Lawyers on Nairaland.. Let us share our own opinions on this.
..
Is it the right thing for INEC to publish the fully detailed results of all the elections on their website?
Is INEC mandated by the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act to publish the full results on their website?
And also, at what level of collation would they start to publish the results? (That is, if you agreed that they should publish the detailed results)
....
....
(HERE BELOW IS THE NEWS PUBLISHED BY PREMIUM TIMES..)
..
..
SIX MONTHS AFTER NIGERIANS ELECTED NEW LEADERS, THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION, INEC, IS YET TO UPLOAD THE DETAILED RESULTS OF THE ELECTIONS ON ITS WEBSITE


Nigeria held presidential and national assembly elections on February 23, while governorship and state assembly elections were conducted on March 9.

As at August 18, however, only the final results of the presidential election (total votes scored by each candidate) had been uploaded by the electoral commission. 

View HERE
for the final Presidential Election Results.

Even for the presidential election, details of votes scored in each state or local governments are yet to be uploaded by the commission.

For governorship and parliamentary elections, the electoral commission is yet to upload any results. Rather, it only published the list of the eventual winners of the elections. 

..
VIOLATING THE LAW

Publishing of results of an election is mandatory on INEC, which has the responsibility for elections across Nigeria except for local government elections.

Section 71 of the Electoral Act states that INEC “shall cause to be posted on its notice board and website a notice showing the candidates at the election and their scores, and the person declared as elected or returned at the election.”

It is not clear if INEC’s refusal to publish the detailed results has any link to the criticisms that trailed the election results. Over half of the election results are being challenged in court.

Also, The Situation Room, a coalition of 72 civil society organisations that monitored the elections, in its final report questioned many of the figures declared by INEC as the final results of the election.

“Data in the voters’ register, as well as results figures declared by INEC, threw up several glaring discrepancies that have yet to be explained. There were also differences between the number of accredited voters and the total number of votes cast in many polling units. In a similar vein, Situation Room observed that there was significantly more votes casts in the presidential elections than was cast in the National Assembly elections which took place simultaneously with the presidential election.

“Furthermore, a close scrutiny of the registration numbers given by INEC reveals discrepancies between the total number of registered voters announced before the election and the total number of registered voters announced by INEC during the collation in 30 of Nigeria’s 36 states,” the civic coaltion said.

When contacted last week on the reason the results are yet to be uploaded, INEC spokesperson, Festus Okoye said, “the officials at the headquarters are yet to resume fully from the Sallah break.”

“When they do by Monday, I would find out and get back to you”, he added.

INEC’s inaction on the results has, however, been condemned by civil society groups

“Unfortunately, INEC (has) neglected to make public, detailed breakdown of the election results — including voided votes. This is part of a more worrying trend,” Idayat Hassan of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) said.

“One of the most noticeable and avoidable missteps INEC has made following the 2019 election is its refusal to publish detailed election results on its website.

“Much like it did in 2007 general elections, INEC has only published national-level totals for 2019 presidential elections, choosing to keep sub-national results data hidden from public view.

“It is high time civic groups and the press start making use of the Freedom of Information Act Requests to compel INEC to publish full and detailed results data for all elections held since 2015,” Ms Hassan, whose group monitored the elections across Nigeria, said.

In his reaction, a lawyer, Monday Ejeh, said INEC’s inaction may be because there is no punlshment for not publishing the detailed results.

Mr Ejeh said there are two types of laws: the ones backed with sanctions, and the ones not backed with sanctions.

“In other words, when the law says – if you do this, you would suffer this, that means there are consequences for it; and then, the ones without sanctions.

“Talking of sanctions, a sanction can be negative, for example, imprisonment, an option of fine and so on, or it could be positive, meaning if you do this, you would get this or be promoted.

“But, that section (mandating publish of election results) is just hanging, there are no sanctions attached to it.

“So, those who are interested in getting the result from the website, there is one option, to approach the court and seek an order of the court, mandating INEC to upload the result.

“You may reach them to know what their reasons are, although there is no excuse. That section mentions notice board and website, so, if INEC comes to say “on all the voting centres, we pasted this result”, it may suffice for posting on their notice boards, but the question is, does INEC even have a notice board?

“If they have, where are they stationed? I do not think in every INEC office you go to, there are notice boards. So, these are issues, because, sometimes we make these laws, but we don’t care to follow them in compliance.”

“I am not sure if they have been complying before. I am not sure about that,” the lawyer added.


Posted on 18th August, 2019.

Source:
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/347252-six-months-after-nigerias-general-elections-inec-yet-to-upload-detailed-results.html

They’re still cooking the figures!

XANDERBOY85:
They’re still cooking the figures!

We will continue to wait for them.
Whenever they are ready, let them just publish it..
We need the details more than the results itself, (but they would never know.)
They thought we are just interested in the winners and losers.

Are U sure INEC has a record of d figures dey made up as d final results? They are still trying to reconcile d figures dey announced with d actual election figures

INEC (@inecnigeria) posted the thread below on twitter on the 30th of June, 2018.
This means that INEC knew the right things to be done when it comes to the Freedom of Information Act, but they don't do them.
See Below:

..
Objectives: Freedom of Information Act
.
1. To make public records & information more freely accessible subject to established exemptions;
.
2. Ensures openness, Transparency, Accountability & Probity
.
3. Ensure Public Institutions respond to requests &applications from information...
.
11:59 AM · Jun 30, 2018· Twitter for iPhone
Replying to: @inecnigeria

.
4. Ensure that bureaucratic implements r not deployed by public institutions to frustrate request or application for information
.
5. Ensure citizens right to take legal action to compel compliance public Institution to make records &Information available & accessible to the public
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6. Public Institutions are to proactively disclose information concerning their activities and operations
.
7. Eliminates the need to demonstrate any specific interest in the information applied for
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8. Reflects Nigeria’s fundamental commitment to Open Governance
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9. Provide public right to information, which is essential to the spirit and practice of Open Government
.
10. Ensures citizens participation in governance in order to buy into Government programmes and activities.

#EU4DemocracyNG
@EUinNigeria
@EU_SDGN
@ECESeu
@UKaid
@USAID


...
Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/inecnigeria/status/1013014094780256256

Nbote:
Are U sure INEC has a record of d figures dey made up as d final results? They are still trying to reconcile d figures dey announced with d actual election figures

Well, INEC should answer all queries that are in connection with the elections and the results..
But the truth is, it is high time INEC started making the results public.
Nigerians are entitled to the full detailed results after the elections.
It is not something that should be hidden

I may not know the full content of the Electoral Bill - as amended, which was not passed into law before the 2019 general elections.. But, it is very important for the National Assembly to revise the bill again, and add a serious clause for ”public disclosure of the fully detailed results” within 3 months or less from the time the elections were concluded, failure of which attracts severe sanctions to INEC or any relevant body that brought about the delay.

...

Meanwhile, I'm not a wailer.. And this thread is not a wailing thread, neither is it a thread for wailing (or wailers)..
The reason I am sounding this warning here is for those people that may click into the thread just to derail off the point in their arguments - Either by wailing, or by calling other people wailers.

The way things are now, is there any way (or means) I can apply for the results and get them from INEC?

...

...

“This year’s recall of an uplifting day in the year 1993 comes up against a background of its most shameful disavowal: the 2019 elections still under judicial contestation.An event that would be more accurately described as an exercise in body count rather than ballot count,” he said.

“The elections however merely reflected a pattern of savagery and abandonment of human sensibilities that have eaten away the sheerest sense of community in the nation. I have already described it as the final descent into the abyss of human degradation.

https://www.thecable.ng/soyinka-i-wont-participate-in-june-12-celebrations/amp
INEC simply have no genuine results to publish simply because the 2019 election was the worst democratic robbery ever seen in Nigeria.

...

**UPDATE:....
...
INEC just published a revised version of their “Communication Policy”..
The problem here is not in publishing lots of policies here and there..
The real problem is:
Would these policies guide their decisions and actions??

...
See the link to the policy below:
https://www.inecnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PDF.Revised-INEC-Communication-Policy.pdf

inconclusive NEC....biggest scam in naija

After I opened this thread on 28th August, I started following the outcome of the CDD's interactions with INEC.

On the 30th of August, Daily Post published this news article below on their website:

CDD RELEASES REPORT ON HOW INEC COLLATED 2019 ELECTIONS, SAYS EXERCISE LESS TRANSPARENT..


The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) on Friday released a detailed new report on the collation of election results at the ward level, describing it as one of the most vulnerable parts of Nigeria’s election process.

In the report released to DAILY POST on Friday, the group noted that a post-mortem provides independent and objective assessment of the process by which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) aggregated and tabulated polling unit level results during the election. CDD observed that compared to 2011 and 2015, INEC was less transparent in the conduct of the 2019 elections.

The report reads in part:

The integrity of this collation process is critical to the overall success and credibility of Nigerian elections. If conducted in a transparent, organised and well-regulated way, collation can help produce credible election results and boost voter confidence in the process. In the 2019 elections, however, civil society observers across Nigeria saw a collation process that was chaotic, open to manipulation and, in some locations, badly disrupted and opaque.

Although ward-level collation is just one of the many challenges to Nigeria’s electoral the process is an important vulnerability that receives little domestic scrutiny or international attention. Left unresolved, Nigeria’s widespread ward-level collation problems will continue to embolden election spoilers, weaken public trust in INEC and undermine the credibility of election results.

Ward-level collation disruptions and manipulations give opportunistic political parties and individual candidates opportunities to dispute the outcome and legitimacy of elections, especially in Nigeria’s most politically contentious wards. Such disputes frequently exacerbate local political tensions, empower local political thugs and even help fuel long-running communal conflicts.

Context: CDD’s 2019 Ward-Level Collation Monitoring Effort

Ahead of the 2019 election, CDD—in partnership with Premium Times and the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC)—trained and deployed over 8,809 INEC-accredited ward-level observers to polling units and ward collation centres in every state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on 23 February 2019. Using Zabe SR – an application specifically designed for election observation – CDD observers recorded data on the operational status and conditions at individual polling units in real-time and provided qualitative descriptions of the voting process and incidents affecting the collation exercise. Four key takeaways emerged.

Key Takeaway 1: Ward-Level Collation Faced Five Main Challenges

The five main challenges CDD observers identified were:

Missteps and misconduct of INEC staff;
Deliberate denial of access to observers and media;
Logistical shortfalls;
Intentional disruption by politicians, political thugs and party agents;
Intimidation of collation staff and other malfeasance by security agents.

Key Takeaway 2: Collation Problems Significant in Five Key State

Five states—Lagos, Osun, Kaduna, Rivers and Sokoto—experienced significant problems with the ward-level collation. Together, these states accounted for 46% of incidents of concern noted by our observers. The situation was especially bad in Rivers State where clashes between political thugs and security personnel—de facto proxy battles between top politicians in the state—disrupted several collation centres.

Key Takeaway 3: INEC Less Transparent in 2019 than in 2015 and 2011

One of the most noticeable—and avoidable—missteps INEC has made following the 2019 election is its refusal to publish detailed election results to its website. INEC has only published national-level totals for the 2019 presidential election, choosing to keep sub-national results data hidden from public view. This opaque approach reverses the tangible—albeit incomplete—progress on results transparency that accompanied the 2011 and 2015 elections.

Furthermore, in its rush to certify state-level results, INEC has yet to publish a verifiable and credible paper trail for their ward-and local-level results that demonstrate to Nigerians and the world how they arrived at their official results. Without evidence voters are asked to trust that INEC’s final results have been calculated accurately and free from outside manipulation despite numerous reports of disruptions to ward-level collation.


CDD Provides a No-Nonsense Recommendations

With the aim of improving ward-level collation in forthcoming elections, CDD makes the following recommendations:

INEC should improve processes for conducting collation in line with international best practices. These can be trialled in off-cycle elections, ahead of the next national ballot in 2023.

INEC should also transparently and proactively publish—via the INEC website and through civil society organisations—official results for all election contests, showing a full and accurate breakdown of figures down to polling unit level. It should work towards developing a way of transparently making ward-level results easily accessible to, and searchable by, the general public.


INEC should discipline or, if necessary, investigate and then prosecute its personnel alleged to have been involved in misconduct during the collation process.

Nigeria’s security agencies should hold its personnel—and their commanding officers—accountable for unprofessional or illegal conduct while deployed on election duty.

Security agencies should also notify the public—via the press and online—which units will be undertaking election security duties in each local government area of each state to ensure that individual unit can be held accountable for their conduct on election day.

Political party leaders must commit to holding their party agents and other members accountable for their election day actions, particularly those present at collation centres. They should discourage the use of political thugs and formalise penalties for party members involved in mobilising and financing them. Publishing the names and locations of party agents would be a welcome first step.

Civil society organisations should continue to lobby INEC to improve its transparency and dissemination of election tabulations and results, particularly at the ward and local government level. Freedom of Information Act requests and legal actions (as necessary) can ensure that INEC is compelled to publish full and detailed results data for all elections held since 2015.


Further amendment of the Electoral Act (2010) will allow for the introduction of electronic vote transmission which will reduce error in the calculation process and improve the pace of collation.

The international community and development partners should provide international election observers with the support and protection needed to observe after-hours collation at the ward and local government levels.

International entities should also impose travel and financial sanctions against individuals involved in disrupting ward-level collation and other kinds of election malfeasance as well as their political sponsors.


Source: https://dailypost.ng/2019/08/30/cdd-releases-report-inec-collated-2019-elections-says-exercise-less-transparent-see-details/

On the same 30th of August, Punch Newspaper published this news article below on their website.


CDD DEMANDS 2019 POLL RESULTS ON INEC WEBSITE..


The Centre for Democracy and Development on Thursday demanded that the Independent National Electoral Commission should publish the official results of the 2019 general elections on its website .
While describing the 2019 polls as the most chaotic collation process ever witnessed in the electoral history of Nigeria, the organisation said it would consider using (every) available means, including the use of the Freedom of Information Act to compel INEC to publish the results according to polling units.
The Director of CDD , Idayat Hassan , stated this in Abuja during the presentation of its post-mortem report on the 2019 election collation .

She said, “INEC should improve processes for conducting collation in line with international best practices. These can be tried in off - cycle elections , ahead of the next national ballot in 2023.

“lNEC should also transparently and proactively publish - via the INEC website and through the civil society organisations - official results for an election contests, showing a full and accurate breakdown of figures down to polling unit level.

“It should work towards developing a way of transparently making ward-level results easily accessible to , and searchable by , the general public. I think it is actually important for INEC to publish the results according to polling units. It is not just about going to court, it is actually what you and I can actually do through available means.

“Lagos, Osun, Kaduna, Rivers and Sokoto experienced significant problems with the ward level collation. Together these states accounted for 46 per cent of incidents of concern noted by our observers. The situation was especially bad in Rivers State where clashes between political thugs and security personnel -de facto proxy battles between top politicians in the state -disrupted several collation centres,” CDD stated.
It added, “Further amendment to the Electoral Act (2010) will allow for the introduction of electronic vote transmission which will reduce error in the calculation process and improve the pace of collation.

“The FoI is one of the means that could actually encourage INEC to do it. It is something that has formed observers’ report since 2011. The rules should be followed when it comes to INEC. In the last election, we witnessed a lot of intimidation of collation staff, observers and the media by security agencies and political thugs.

“This must not rear its head in the Bayelsa, Kogi and other off-cycle elections before the 2023 elections. The fact must be told that this was an election in which we witness many collation officers disappearing for more than 20 hours in several of the ward collation centres. This is the most chaotic collation process ever witnessed.”


Source: https://punchng.com/cdd-demands-2019-poll-results-on-inec-website/

INEC in a quick twist went ahead to reply..
But guess what?
They fumbled big time with the reply..
Whoever it was that did the reply didn't even know the correct INEC website.
(What a shame)
Meanwhile, before you read the INEC's reply, it is important to not that it was only one website that published the news, and comments and replies were blocked off on the news article.

On the 8th of September 2019, BusinessDay published this news article below on their website..


WE PUBLISHED 2019 ELECTIONS RESULTS IN ONE WEEK, INEC REPLIES CRITICS..

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it published the 2019 general elections results on its website a week after the announcement.

INEC, which was responding to contrary views in some quarters, said it published the results long after the elections, said results of the Presidential and National Assembly elections were published on its website, www.inec.ng.org early enough.

According to Section 71 of the 2010 Electoral Act as amended, INEC, “shall cause to be posted on its notice board and website a notice showing the candidates at the election and their scores, and the person declared as elected or returned at the election”.


However, there have been concerns as to whether the Commission has fulfilled this legal obligation or not, long after the conduct of the February/ March general elections.
Idayat Hassan, director, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), while expressing reservations on why the Commission has not published results of the recent polls said, “Unfortunately, INEC neglected to make public, detailed breakdown of the election results—including voided votes. The trend is worrisome”.
Hassan noted that, “One of the most noticeable and avoidable blunders INEC has made following the 2019 election, is its refusal to publish detailed election results on its website.
“Much like it did in 2007 general elections, INEC has only published national-level totals for 2019 presidential elections, choosing to keep sub-national results data”.
Again, the CDD director, while presenting a post mortem report on 2019 general elections, urged INEC to transparently and promptly publish, via its website and through civil society organisations, official results for all election contests, showing a full and accurate breakdown of figures down to polling unit level.

But reacting to the concerns, Rotimi Kayode, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, questioned which other results the Commission is being demanded to publish other than what is already on its official website.


Kayode told BusinessDay that the results are published with breakdown state by state and encouraged the public to visit the website and click on www.inec.ng.org to see the published results.

“Have you gone to the website and the results of the 2019 general elections are not there? So, when people say we have not published the results, I just wonder. We have published the report with the breakdown, state by state, a week after results were announced, so what exactly are they looking for?

“If you go to INEC website, the results of 2019 presidential election, Senatorial and House of Representatives are all there. But if you are looking for a pulling unit in Bayelsa that one is not there. So it is a different process.

“The result of 2019 presidential election is on the website. This is what the constitution asks us to do and we have done so, people are just playing to the gallery. If you want to prove me wrong, go to the website click on www.inec.ng.org when the thing comes on go to the elections click on it, there will be a drop down and you will see the results of the presidential election, all the 73 political parties and the person that won and all the scores that each of them has”, he explained.

When BusinessDay visited the website, it saw the results of the presidential elections with scores by individual candidates and their parties without state by state breakdown.

Also seen were the results of the Senatorial and House of Representatives elections with only candidates that won in each of 109 Districts and 360 Constituencies.


Source: https://businessday.ng/ng-election/article/we-published-2019-elections-results-in-one-week-inec-replies-critics/

First of all, www.inec.ng.org does not belong to INEC in any way.
Secondly, INEC's functional website is www.inecnigeria.org, and it is the website which has the final result sheet of the presidential election uploaded to it; and with the lists of winning candidates for Senatorial, House of Representatives, and Governorship elections.
(Not even the final result sheets of these other positions were published, not to talk of the full results down to the polling-booth level). See the links below.
1. Link to the Presidential Election Result Sheet.
2. Link to the List of Elected Senatorial Candidates.
3. Link to the List of Elected Candidates of the House of Representatives.
4. Link to the List of Governors Elect and their Deputies.


Thirdly, an old website of INEC, www.inec.gov.ng does not have any election results uploaded to it.
It was last updated since February 2019.

For those ones that may come here to defend INEC, just be aware that in other democratic countries, the electoral bodies functioning in them does not delay the publishing of the full election results down to the polling-booth level.
You can see an example below.

For instance, here is the Australian Electoral Commission's Page for Election Results...
https://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Federal_Elections/

You can compare this page with that of INEC and see exactly the point I am trying to make.

I will wait till you list Africa countries that published theirs. Only foolish people will expect Nigeria to meet up European standards expect in SCAM fraud n cocaine

tk4rd:
For instance, here is the Australian Electoral Commission's Page for Election Results...
https://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Federal_Elections/

You can compare this page with that of INEC and see exactly the point I am trying to make.

Do you also have website of previously published election result in Nigeria or you are just one of those that want Buhari to provide solution to all Nigeria's problem in less than 5 years when others could not in 60 years ?!

The can't because it will expose their fraud

FarahAideed:
The can't because it will expose their fraud

Fine..
Even if they won't start with this election that just came and gone, let them start it with Kogi and Bayelsa Governorship election that comes up in November.
CAN THEY??

Toroso:
I will wait till you list Africa countries that published theirs. Only foolish people will expect Nigeria to meet up European standards expect in SCAM fraud n cocaine

Do you also have website of previously published election result in Nigeria or you are just one of those that want Buhari to provide solution to all Nigeria's problem in less than 5 years when others could not in 60 years ?!

My reply to the first bolded statement...
Nigeria is still the giant of Africa. We can start it. It is what democracy is. We have the right to see the results of how we voted in full.. Political analysts need it even more.

My reply to the second bolded statement..
When you do something that is good, you just try to be the best at it. If someone else had done it before, you can take that person as a case study. Not to copy the person, but for you to still be the best at what you do.

My reply to the third bolded statement..
You think I have anything against Buhari or Atiku?
My concern here is INEC. They are the ones that can correct themselves. Buhari or Atiku won't do it for them.
The earlier they start doing good, the better for democracy in Nigeria.

Again,, please stop placing Nigeria in bad light please, even when things don't seem nice with us now.. I know it will still get better soon.

I for one, I have hope in Nigeria, and I mean it.
One day, I will tell my kids the story of how we suffered bad governance and bad elections in the past.
And they would listen to me and see it all as history..
I don't want all these bad news to meet my kids.

YOU GOT ME NOW??

Mods, why are you people deleting all my comments where I mentioned Lalasticlala and Mynd44 and Seun??
Please, is it a taboo to mention Lalasticlala, or Mynd44, or Seun in a comment??
Is This thread that bad? or too sensitive? or not Front-Page worthy?
Any mod,, please answer me quick..
Because I don't really understand this anymore..
..
Again, I ask.., and I want to know...
Is this thread not Front-Page Worthy??
What exactly is wrong with it??

LALASTICLALA, MYND44, SEUN...
Please help me push this thread to the Front Page..
Please, na beg I dey beg...
(Please mods, don't delete this comment again please..
Just help me push the thread to the Front Page.. Thanks)

Good Morning..