The Independent National Electoral Commission on Friday said it would punish political parties found to be violating electoral timelines as well as provisions of the new Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), especially during the 2023 elections.
The commission also maintained its ground not to jettison electronic transmission of results and revert to manual process and would not lower the bar in next year’s election.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, made the clarification during a post-election roundtable and public presentation of the final report on the observation of 2022 Ekiti and Osun Governorship Election, organised by a human rights organisation, Yiaga Africa.
He said, “I want to seize this opportunity to assure Nigerians that this present commission will be bold and courageous in prosecuting the 2023 general elections.
“We are going to harvest and we will continue to harvest lessons from the Edo governorship election, Ondo governorship election, Anambra governorship election, and Ekiti and Osun governorship elections in shaping the way we approach the 2023 general election.
“We are going to harvest all the good practices, we are also going to look at some of those issues we did not do so well and we will improve on them.
“But our assurance is that this commission will not lower the bar and we are going to improve and we continue to improve with every election.
