The National Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it would begin to collate and announce presidential results as from 6 pm today.
According to INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Resident Electoral Officer (REC) of Ekiti states was already on his way to the INEC national presidential results collation and announcement center in Abuja with the presidential result as cast in Ekiti state.
INEC made the announcement on national television at about 4 pm today.
Yakubu said, Ekiti is the first state to complete its election result collation, both at the house of representative, senate and presidential levels. He said other states would follow as soon as they are ready.
According to him many states almost all the states have concluded collation at the polling unit level and some have concluded the local government level and they were at the level of state collation.
He said INEC would had sworn an oath of neutrality and transparency in the result collation and announcement, adding that only the Commission has the right to announce results.
Yakubu lamented that in spite of its efforts to ensure smooth electoral process, the Commission has witnessed some unexpected glitches across the country. He said there had been late arrival of materials necessitating late commencement of voting. According to him where such had happened, the Commission has extended the voting time.
Inspite of our great effort to enhance the card reader we experienced some problems. There are places voting could not take place because of failure of smart card reader; in some others it was lateness. New card readers were reconfigured to handle the situation. He said the Commission was expecting reports of election violations in some states such as Abia, Bayelsa, Benue, Plateau, Zamfara and River state.
