By Adegboyega Adeleye
A chieftain of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Senator Victor Umeh, has clarified that the party is not planning a parallel result collation system for the 2027 general elections.
Umeh said the NDC would instead have agents at polling units who would collate results declared at the units and transmit them to the party’s situation room for independent collation.
He spoke on Channels Television’s Politics on Friday while reacting to the debate over the NDC’s proposed system for monitoring and transmitting polling-unit results.
On whether the arrangement amounted to a parallel result system, Umeh said: “No, it is not. What makes it parallel?”
He explained that the party’s agents would be present at polling units and transmit results after they had been collated, declared and entered in the prescribed result forms.
“I believe he (Obi) must have been misquoted, what he is trying to say is that the party would have its agents at every polling unit and once the results are collated, declared, and put in the prescribed result form, they will be doing their own collation in the situation room,” he said.
Umeh added: “You must send the results of the polling units to the NDC situation room. INEC has no monopoly of collation of data.”
He also said the party’s constitution provides for a 13-man executive structure at every polling unit.
“Of course, even our constitution prescribe that we shall have a 13 man executive in every polling unit,” Umeh said.
The NDC chieftain also spoke on the need to protect votes and ensure that the 2027 elections are free and fair, while stressing that votes must count.
He further called for the prosecution of electoral offenders and urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deploy more personnel for elections.
Umeh also advocated greater use of INEC’s own personnel as returning officers, rather than relying heavily on ad hoc staff during elections.
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