After N305bn, INEC faces knocks for poor performance

After spending over N305 billion of taxpayers money for the conduct of the 2023 elections, the first of which was held on Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), serious questions are now being asked of the independent electoral empire over its performance in the presidential and National Assembly elections.

Saturday’s presidential election is the seventh consecutive presidential contest since 1999 when the country began its march towards its longest democratic run since independence. And across many divides it was billed as a defining, if not existential, election for the country; one in which a huge expectation was placed on the umpire, INEC.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), being a political umpire in the fiercely contested election which, for the first time, presented a three-man jostle for the presidential seat, proposed the sum of N305 billion for the conduct of the 2023 general election. The figure, according to data gathered by Business A.M., is a 62 percent increase over the N189.2 billion budgeted for the 2019 general elections.

INEC, in its  Election Project Plan (EPP) document for the 2023 general election, explained that the N305 billion election budget followed a thorough consideration and review of the budget proposals submitted by 23 departments and directorates which was approved by the EPP committee.

INEC also argued that the budget was based on the “fundamental principle that elections must be efficient and cost-effective to deliver better value for money.”

Giving a breakdown of the proposed N305 billion electoral expenditure, the commission said it requires N161.9 billion for electoral operational and administrative costs, N117.1 billion for electoral technology costs, N18.5 billion for electoral capital costs.

It added that N7.4 billion or 2.5 percent of the electoral administrative operations, electoral technology and electoral capital costs was set aside as contingency for unforeseen electoral expenses.

“In nominal terms, this is an increase of 61.37 percent on the cost of conducting the 2019 elections. However, in real terms, the proposed budget for the 2023 general election is comparable to the expenditure on the 2015 and 2019 general elections taking into consideration the increased rate of the consumer price index between 2015, 2019 and 2021, as well as the widening differentials in the foreign exchange rate,” the document partly read.

Emphasising on the need to invest in top-notch cyber security systems to ward off attacks by hackers against its servers, website and database, the electoral body stated that  N117 billion would be spent on electoral technologies in line with its decision to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the Result Viewing Portal in the 2023 elections.

The amount, it said, represents 33.4 percent of its N305 billion budget for the polls.

Another top expenditure item as identified by INEC is the personnel cost for the recruitment and deployment of at least four election officials to the 176,846  polling units nationwide and for the required number of collation officers, supervisory presiding officers and returning officers.

According to INEC, the budget was considered based on the average cost per registered voter index, the cost per voter for the election based on a projected voting population of 100 million registered voters estimated to be $5.39.

All these spendings are now being questioned by many people who say that despite the necessary provisions at its disposal towards a successful election, the commission’s performance has been shambolic.

INEC continues to also receive negative appraisals from various quarters, an indication of a persistence by the umpire of incompetence despite being in charge of the country’s electoral process for over two decades, with billions of naira on recurring expenditure.

In many parts of the country, voters expressed disappointment over issues relating to logistics which delayed the arrival of election materials and officials, thereby marring the voting exercise in several polling units.

Business A.M. gathered that in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, frustrated voters were left with no choice but to storm INEC’s Yenagoa office to protest their inability to vote due to a lack of sensitive materials.

Similar cases were recorded across many parts of the country, marked by various cases of BVAS malfunctioning and failing to accredit eligible voters, late arrival of election materials, as well as glitches in uploading results to INEC collation servers.

In its assessment of the presidential and national assembly elections, the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria, observed that INEC lacked efficient planning and transparency during critical stages of the electoral process. The Mission added that trust in INEC deteriorated due to delayed polling processes and information gaps related to access to results on its Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

“During the early stages of collation, presidential result forms from polling units were not displayed on the IReV, while Senate and House of Representative results were slowly published. Presidential election result forms started to be uploaded after 10 pm on election day, raising concerns and reaching only 20 percent by noon on 26 February. Later the same evening, INEC explained the delay with “technical hitches,” the observers noted.

It also listed delayed training of technical personnel, an inadequate mock testing exercise, and a lack of public information on the election technologies as factors which diminished expectations and left room for speculation and uncertainty

In the same vein, the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF), queried INEC’s performance over what it alleged to be rampant cases of result manipulation across the country.

The NYPF described INEC’s performance as being nothing short of abysmal, noting that the hope and confidence in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has proven to be a wasted investment of people’s emotions in a system that has not been fully integrated and dependable.

In a statement issued and signed by Moses Siloko Siasia, its chairman, the group noted that it was disappointing at this time to have the unwarranted hiccup from INEC technology with the BVAS and IREV performing below what the commission had promised to deliver.

On its part, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), commended INEC for its role in organising a successful election and the application of technologically  advanced tools.

Highlighting some of the issues that affected INEC’s performance,  the non-profit organisation advocating for good governance and democratic practices, reasoned that the problem facing INEC is not only institutional but also infrastructural, especially in the areas of infrastructural deficits and logistic hindrances.

Speaking during a press conference held in Abuja, Jinadu Adele, the chairman of the election analysis centre, observed that despite the recent upscaling of the INEC’s technological tendencies, other institutional malfeasances are cowing the performance of the commission.

Adele cited the poor functionality of the BVAS and the late arrival of INEC officials and  other election materials as symptoms of Nigeria’s infrastructural decadence and underdevelopment tendencies.

“Infrastructure, logistics, and the difficult terrain caused challenges to INEC in its delivery, impacting the early start of the election and the behaviour of people employed by INEC,” he said.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) bemoaned the inability of INEC to conduct free, fair and credible elections despite its several assurances to the public and the huge resources invested in the commission.

According to Joe Ajaero, the NLC president, the situation has become worse instead of getting better.

Ajaero further expressed his disappointment over what he described as flimsy excuses of INEC for not being able to distribute materials on time and refusal to upload results from polling units to the INEC database. The NLC president added that it was a calculated attempt to rig the elections and demanded an investigation into the action.

“We feel embarrassed about the explanation of INEC that materials arrived late in some areas because of the distance between the localities and the storage centres. We know that polling units located very close to such centres were also heavily affected by INEC’s tardiness and apparent refusal to make them available as required,” he stated on behalf of the labour union.

NLC also demanded that INEC investigate the activities of one of its officials in the ICT department who may have been responsible for technically jamming the airwaves making it difficult for BVAS results to be transmitted to the servers.