…Says collation of results is done in four levels
By Joy Odor
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakuku on Sunday officially declares the National Collation Centre (ICC) open to receive results from the various State Collation Officers for the Presidential Election (SCOPE) and National Assembly.
Yakubu made this known at the regular briefing while explaining the procedure and the ground rules for the collation proceedings to the media, election observers, accredited polling agents, the diplomatic community and security agencies to adhere to in Abuja.
INEC Chairman informed the general public that the collation of presidential election result in Nigeria is done at four levels after the conclusion of voting, counting and recording of results at Polling Unit level.
According to him, the results are first tallied and collated at the 8,809 Registration Areas (or Wards).
“The collated Wards level results are tallied and collated at the 774 Local Government Areas nationwide. Thereafter, they are tallied and collated at each of the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The collated figures for each State and FCT are finally collated here in Abuja where the announcement of the outcome of the election is made.
“Results for each State of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) shall be presented by the State Collation Officer for the Presidential Election (SCOPE) who also served as the Collation Officer at State/FCT-level;
“After collating the result at State level, the SCOPE shall be accompanied to Abuja by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and security agencies;
“On arrival at the Collation Centre, the SCOPE shall be received by the Collation Secretariat which shall organise the sequence of presentation;
“The Returning Officer shall invite the SCOPE, accompanied by the REC, to the seat provided for the presentation of result;
“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; The Returning Officer requests the SCOPE to submit the original copy of the EC8D;
“When all the SCOPES have presented their results, the Returning Officer shall display the sealed copies of the Results sheets – EC8DA (Summary of Results of Elections on State-by-State Basis), EC8E (the Declaration of Results of the Elections) and EC40G(3) (summary of registered voters in polling units where elections were cancelled or not held);
“The Returning Officer then completes Form EC8DA and announce the votes scored by each party and thereafter invites the polling agents to endorse the Form;
“The Returning Officer then completes EC40G(3) and compares it with Form EC8DA to ascertain if any of the candidates has satisfied the requirements of the law to proceed with declaration” he stated.
