Elections 2023: INEC Opens Abuja Collation Center, Waiting for State Results

The collation center for the 2023 presidential election was solemnly inaugurated on Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja’s International Conference Center.

Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, officially opened the center for collating election results and established a few ground rules.

Until the official declaration of the presidential election results in 2023, the collation center is hereby proclaimed open, he stated.

Mahmood also stated that the results of the presidential election will be collated at four levels: first, at the 8,889 wards, then at the 774 local government areas, and finally, in Abuja, by the state collation officers for the presidential election (SCOPs) from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The collation center will be operational day and night with brief pauses, according to the electoral chief.

Additionally, he warned political parties to exclusively use INEC data and said that state data collation will resume at 6 pm, when state results would have been available.

“We will now take a break and continue at 6 o’clock as we wait for the SCOPs.

“We’re confident that one or two SCOPs will show up with the results by 6 o’clock. So, we start the collation process, the INEC director said.

Nigerians anticipate the announcement of the results by the electoral umpire after elections for the presidency, 360 House of Representatives members, and 109 Senate seats were held on Saturday in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Although there are 18 candidates running, pollsters and experts have characterised the race as a four-horse battle between Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party, and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (LP).

Both Kwankwaso and Atiku are natives of northern Nigeria, Obi and Tinubu are from the country’s southern region. The two terms of President Muhammadu Buhari, who is up for reelection on May 29, 2023, are set to expire, and the four heavyweights and leading contenders each enjoy significant support.

Most of Nigeria’s 176,606 polling places held elections, and 87.2 million voters with Permanent Voter Cards cast ballots for their favourite candidates.