A coalition of civil society organisations has cautioned political stakeholders across the country to immediately halt the practice of altering or substituting outcomes from primary elections monitored by the electoral authorities. The coalition asserted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must aggressively protect the credibility of its official records and reject any attempt to legitimise fabricated figures.
Addressing a press briefing in Akure, Ondo State, the coordinator of the Centre for Democratic Governance and leader of the coalition, Ugochukwu Constantine, stressed that the judiciary remains the ultimate defender of the citizens' mandate. Constantine noted that democracy requires robust institutional backing rather than relying merely on the goodwill of powerful political actors.
What specific demands did the civil society group make regarding party primaries?
The coalition maintained that outcomes declared at polling venues must accurately mirror what transpired on the ground. According to the group, no political platform, regardless of whether it holds governmental power or belongs to the opposition, possesses the legal authority to rewrite tallies recorded by the electoral umpire and its designated committees.
Constantine specifically called out the electoral body for occasionally permitting platforms to transmit or upload candidate lists that replace legitimate winners with defeated aspirants. He emphasized that the constitutional framework mandating INEC presence at internal party elections was designed precisely to prevent such subversion of the democratic process.
Highlighting recent developments in Ondo State, the coalition pointed to alleged discrepancies where the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) purportedly generated results that sharply contradicted figures documented by field monitors. Such actions, the group argued, violate both the spirit and letter of the [Electoral Act](https://placng.org/i/wp- content/uploads/2022/03/Electoral-Act-2022.pdf).
How do legal provisions protect primary election winners?
Under Section 84(13) of the Electoral Act, the electoral commission possesses clear statutory authority to ensure that submitted candidate lists strictly correspond with actual victors from supervised primaries. The legislation aims to curb the arbitrary replacement of candidates by party hierarchies.
To enforce compliance, the electoral body utilizes an automated electronic nomination portal engineered to automatically flag and reject any candidate submissions that conflict with primary results officially uploaded by field officers. The civil society coalition insisted that this technological infrastructure must operate without interference or compromise, noting that public resources funded its implementation.
During the briefing, returning officers who testified in court regarding alleged forgery of signatures during APC direct primaries in areas such as Akoko South East/West, Ondo East/West, and Ilaje/Ese-Odo were commended for defending electoral integrity. The coalition expressed strong faith in the Nigerian judicial system, urging judges to continue resisting external pressures while upholding constitutional governance and protecting the rights of ordinary citizens.