Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national leadership Monday marched to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to protest against the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

Development Diaries reports that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu; the Vice Presidential Candidate of the party and Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, alongside others, led the protest.

The protesters blocked the entrance to the INEC headquarters, which led to the security personnel at the commission locking the gate.

INEC had on 01 March declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, winner of the election after polling 8,794,726 votes.

His declaration was however countered by opposition political parties who criticised INEC over its poor conduct of the elections.

They complained that INEC officials at polling units failed to upload election results electronically to the commission’s Results Viewing (IReV) portal, as stipulated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022.

The opposition parties also complained that the manual transmission of results compromised the integrity of the election process and demanded a cancellation of the election, adding that the results announced by INEC were compromised.

INEC had promised to start uploading results from polling units to the portal as soon as counting ended, but till this moment, the complete results from polling units had yet to be uploaded, raising concerns over election transparency.

As the governorship elections approach, Development Diaries calls on the electoral commission to respect the law by ensuring strict adherence to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

Photo source: Sahara Reporters