The Independent National Electoral Commission has said that it will not support any candidate or political party in the forthcoming elections, as it is only interested in the electoral process.
The INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said this when he addressed Supervisory Presiding Officers for the 2023 general election in Abuja, according to a video on the Commission’s Twitter handle on Sunday.
Yakubu also urged election officers on neutrality.
He advised them not to see their job as a service to INEC but to the country as a whole in which they are equal stakeholders.
“INEC is not a political party. INEC has no candidate in the election. Our commitment is to the process and we will make sure that the process is what we say it should be so that the choice made by Nigerians will determine the outcome of the process,” he said.
Yakubu described the work of the SPOs as critical to the success of the 2023 general election, urging them to uphold the integrity of the process.
“You are the people who supervise those who will work at the most important level, the Polling Unit level. That is the only place where voting takes place.
“The collation officers at the polling units level are collating results from the PUs. When collation officers at the PU go to the local government level, they are collating results from the PUs.
“When it goes to the state level they are collating results from the PUs and when they come to Abuja, where we collate the presidential result it would have passed through all these processes.
“So, by the time the results come to Abuja, Nigerians would have known the outcome of the election,” he said.
Yakubu added, “Our responsibility is simply to collate.”
He said the training was going on simultaneously in all states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The INEC boss said the training was a further reassurance to Nigerians of the Commission’s readiness to conduct election on February 25 and March 11.
