INEC ESTABLISHES GUIDELINES AND OPENS A NATIONAL COLLATION CENTER

The National Collation Center for the 2023 General Election in Abuja has been officially opened by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

While officially opening the center, INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu also established the procedures for the collation process.

According to Yakubu, the guidelines include, "results for each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) shall be presented by the State Coalition Officers for the Presidential Election (SCOPE)."

Thereafter, he stated, as the presidential election's Returning Officer and Chief Electoral Commissioner, he would compile and make the final results public.

"This is a duty that I'm privileged to perform and it will be done here at this place," he said.

Additional rules, in his view, included adherence to designated seating positions by all accredited agents, observers, the media, the diplomatic community, and security services.

He said: "On arrival at the collation centre, the SCOPE shall be received at the coalition Secretariat, which shall organise the sequence of presentation.

"The returning officer shall invite the SCOPE for the presidential election, accompanied by the REC for the presentation of the results.

"The SCOPE following the format for the presentation of results shall loudly announce the votes scored by each political party in the state including reports of cancellations and areas where elections did not hold, if any.

"The returning officer then invites comments and observations, if any, from the polling agents."

Yakubu noted that the SCOPE would be asked to present the original copy of form EC8D by the returning officer.