INEC Reveals More Than 50% Petitions Dismissed, Defends 2023 Polls

More than 50% of petitions concerning 2023 polls have either been dismissed or withdrawn, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is responsible for organizing and supervising all elections across Nigeria.

In a statement released on Thursday, the commission disclosed that out of 1,196 petitions, 891 were taken back or dismissed in the court.

Sam Olumekun, national commissioner and chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, said out of 891 cases, 712 were dismissed while 179 were withdrawn.

"This means that in 891 cases (74.4%), the tribunal found no merit in the petitions and affirmed the result of the elections conducted by INEC," Olumekun explained, as per Punch.

"It is surprising how the mere filing of petitions constitutes a blot on the integrity of the recent elections conducted by INEC when in fact they constitute an integral part of the democratic process," he continued.

Olumekun noted that as of Oct. 16, 72 (87.8%) out of 82 governorship election petitions were either dismissed or withdrawn by their respective petitioners. As for senatorial elections, 100 (68.5%) out of 146 petitions were dismissed or withdrawn.

"For the House of Representatives, 413 petitions were filed out of which 309 (74.81%) were dismissed or withdrawn while for State Houses of Assembly, 550 petitions were filed out of which 468 (82.4%) were dismissed or withdrawn," he added.

"A comparative analysis would have addressed the deliberate effort in the report to portray the 2023 General Election as regressive on account of litigation without empirical evidence," Olumekun said further.

INEC came under fire earlier this year after the opposition challenged the commission for not being accurate. The commission admitted at the time that there were "glitches" during the presidential elections but dismissed allegations of an unfair election.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was announced as the winner on Feb. 25, but the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party slammed INEC for not having a fair election due to the malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu admitted in June that many Nigerians, including journalists, could not participate in the polls because as per the law, a person could vote only where they were registered. Hence, many journalists were unable to cast their votes since they were assigned to locations that were different from where they were registered.

INEC announced in July that it would deploy 11,355 BVAS machines in the upcoming governorship elections, which will be held in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States next month.