Political parties can’t regulate INEC, says Okoye

The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that political parties cannot serve as a watchdog to the electoral umpire’s activities.

The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, who said this on Sunday night, explained that the commission had been created to serve as a regulator for political parties and not the other way round.

Speaking while featuring on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Okoye insisted that the request by the Labour Party to monitor the commission’s process of reconfiguring and backing up results on its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines would not be granted.

“Political parties can’t regulate the commission’s activities,” Okoye said.

The PUNCH reports that the LP on March 10, 2023, said the electoral umpire deliberately came up with its idea of reconfiguring BIVAS after its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, sought to examine the election materials.

The party also faulted the commission’s claim of backing up the data retrieved from the BVAS without the presence of independent witnesses and representatives of political parties.

The PUNCH reports that the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted the commission’s request to reconfigure the BVAS that was used for the presidential poll.

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