By Our Correspondent
Atedo Peterside, founder of the Anap Foundation, has questioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the alleged absence of results from 62 polling units in the recently concluded Osun State governorship election.
Peterside’s concerns have sparked fresh discussions about transparency and accountability in the electoral process, particularly regarding the publication and verification of results from individual polling units.
The Osun governorship election was conducted on Saturday, with voters across the state casting their ballots to determine who would lead the state for the next term.
Following the voting exercise, attention has shifted to the collation and announcement of results, with political parties, observers and members of the public closely monitoring the figures released by INEC.
However, Peterside has raised questions over the status of results from 62 polling units, asking the electoral commission to explain why the results were allegedly not available for public scrutiny.
His concern comes against the backdrop of growing expectations that election results should be transparent and easily verifiable, particularly through INEC’s electronic results platform.
The IReV platform was introduced to enable Nigerians and other stakeholders to view polling-unit results uploaded by electoral officials. The system is intended to strengthen confidence in the electoral process by allowing citizens to compare polling-unit results with figures announced during collation.
Peterside’s intervention has therefore placed renewed attention on the completeness of the results available to the public.
The question now is whether the 62 polling-unit results were delayed, yet to be uploaded, affected by technical challenges, or otherwise accounted for in the official collation process.
For election observers and stakeholders, resolving the issue is important because every polling unit forms part of the chain through which the final election result is established.
The reported absence of results from some polling units does not, by itself, prove that the election was manipulated. However, it does raise legitimate questions that INEC would need to address clearly to maintain public confidence.
Political parties and their supporters are expected to continue scrutinising the results as the post-election process progresses, while observers will also be watching closely for any discrepancies between polling-unit records and the figures announced at collation centres.
Peterside has been a consistent advocate for greater transparency in Nigeria’s electoral system and has previously raised concerns about the effectiveness of election-result management and verification.
His latest questions have consequently added to the calls for INEC to provide timely explanations whenever election results are missing or unavailable on its platforms.
For many Nigerians, the issue goes beyond the 62 polling units. It touches on a broader demand for an electoral system where every vote is properly documented, every result can be traced and citizens can independently verify the figures used to determine the winner.
As the dust settles on the Osun election, attention is now firmly on INEC to clarify the status of the 62 polling-unit results and address concerns surrounding their availability.
The commission’s explanation could go a long way in reassuring voters and stakeholders that the final outcome accurately reflects the votes cast across Osun State.
