From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, made a U-turn on its position on the capacity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit the 2023 general elections results electronically.
National Chairman of the ruling party, Abdullahi Adamu, had while hosting Commonwealth Delegation for 2023 general elections, expressed reservations over the commission delivering technologically backed elections next year.
APC, in a statement read by Felix Morka, during a press conference, blamed the media for misquoting the party’s boss.
“A section of the media was awashed with comments credited to the APC national chairman on the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), otherwise known as electronic transmission of election results, for the 2023 general elections.
“Media reports that Chairman Adamu kicked against INEC’s decision to deploy BVAS and electronic transmission of results is patently false, and constitutes an unfair misrepresentation of the National Chairman’s comments.
“At a meeting with the Commonwealth pre-election delegation, in response to a question regarding the country’s preparations for next year’s election, the National Chairman noted that while preparations were in top gear, he tasked INEC to take effective steps to bridge any gap that may be created by electricity and telecommunications network challenges in certain outlying voting districts in the country in order to ensure a smooth and successful deployment of BVAS and other technologies to ensure free and transparent elections.
“To be clear, Adamu did not kick against the deployment of BVAS or electronic transmission of results as erroneously reported by sections of the media.
“The APC administration of President Muhammadu Buhari midwifed the successful reform of the Electoral Act, the introduction of (BVAS) among other technological innovation, and has superintended the conduct of credible, free, fair and transparent elections in Edo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states.
“Our party and government remain committed to the highest levels of electoral transparency and democratic consolidation in our country,” the statement read.