We’ll Announce President-Elect Today – Jega

The Independent National Electoral Commission has insisted that it would leave up to its promise to announce the President-Elect before the end of today, Monday.

His statement comes nspite of the extension of Saturday’s elections in some parts of the country.
Jega, who gave journalists an update on the conduct of the polls in Abuja, said that as of Sunday evening, results of the elections had only been completely collated in two states, one of which was Ekiti. He said, “Some people assume that when I said 48 hours( for the release of the results), it starts from the morning the elections commenced. It is 48 hours after elections have ended, like yesterday(Saturday).

“You start counting 48 hours from yesterday (Saturday) when substantial majority of the polling units ended elections.”
The INEC chief expressed satisfaction over the conduct of the  polls, which he said held in a substantial number of polling units across the country, including the troubled North-East zone   where   internally displaced persons   voted in   Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states.

“We are pleased that the elections went on smoothly in a substantial number of polling units across the country, including the North-East where the commission was also able to conduct voting for Internally Displaced Persons in the three states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno,” Jega said.

He said that out of more than  150,000 card readers used for the conduct of the polls , only 300   failed, representing   about 0.25 per cent of the total number of machines.

“It is also gratifying to note that the card readers worked well in the majority of polling units, even though there were areas where difficulties experienced necessitated additional guidelines to allow for manual accreditation of voters, as announced yesterday (Saturday),” Jega said.

He stated that manual accreditation was done in some polling units in   Osun, Kebbi, Ekiti, Adamawa, Borno, Jigawa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states.”

Jega said the elections were extended and concluded on Sunday in nine states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Taraba State has the highest number of 116 polling units where the polls were extended.

Other states where the number of polling units where the elections were extended are Lagos (90), Kebbi (16), Adamawa (25), Niger (six ), Yobe (37), Borno (eight), Jigawa (37), Kano (13) and FCT (two).