Obo Effanga, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Edo State, has given the electoral umpire a pass mark in the conduct of the recent nationwide general elections despite some daunting challenges that it faced in the course of carrying out the assignment.
The REC was speaking while conducting a soul searching enquiry of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) performance at a stakeholders meeting with reporters in the state held at the organisation’s headquarters in Benin City.
He denied claims in some quarters that he has some form of authority in the collation, recording, tabulation and announcement of the results of the polls in the state with a claim that the authority to those assignments lie with the collations officers, who are usually universities dons appointed by the INEC to carry out the assignment.
According to him, where the collation officer in a state cannot handle a case successfully it is passed on to the national chairman and the 12 national commissioners who will deliberate on the issue and come up with a solution to it.
He also spoke on the issue of INEC having the authority to review a declaration if it believes that it was not made willingly or it is found out that the declaration and indeed, the election, did not meet laid down rules and guidelines.
He gave kudos to the reporters for their very objective stance in many instances during the coverage of the polls which he described as a huge success in all ramifications.
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