The Presidency says the European Union (EU) was biased in its report on the 2023 general election in the country.
The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM), had, on Tuesday, June 27, presented its final report on the 2023 general election, saying in the lead-up to the polls, Nigerians demonstrated a clear commitment to the democratic process.
The Chief Observer of the mission, Barry Andrews, who presented the report which has 25 recommendations at a press conference in Abuja, however, noted that “the election exposed enduring systemic weaknesses and therefore signal a need for further legal and operational reforms to enhance transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability.”
The EUEOM noted that shortcomings in law and electoral administration hindered the conduct of well-run and inclusive elections and damaged trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, the Presidency, in a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake, on Sunday, July 2, said the 2023 general election, especially the presidential election won by President Bola Tinubu, was “credible, peaceful, free, fair and the best organised general elections in Nigeria since 1999.”
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Alake added: “There is no substantial evidence provided by the European Union or any foreign and local organisation that is viable enough to impeach the integrity of the 2023 election outcomes.
“It is worth restating that the limitation of EU final assessment and conclusions on our elections was made very bare in the text of the press conference addressed by the Head of its Electoral Observation Mission, Barry Andrews.
“While addressing journalists in Abuja on the so-called final report, Andrews noted that EU-EOM monitored the pre-election and post-election processes in Nigeria from January 11 to April 11, 2023 as an INEC accredited election monitoring group.
“Within this period, EU-EOM observed the elections through 11 Abuja-based analysts, and 40 election observers spread across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. With the level of personnel deployed, which was barely an average of one person per state, we wonder how EU-EOM independently monitored election in over 176,000 polling units across Nigeria.
“We would like to know and even ask EU, how it reached the conclusions in the submitted final report with the very limited coverage of the elections by their observers who, without doubt, relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads.
“We are convinced that what EU-EOM called final report on our recent elections is a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day.
“We have many reasons to believe the jaundiced report, based on the views of fewer than 50 observers, was to merely sustain the same premature denunciatory stance contained in EU’s preliminary report released in March.
“We strongly reject, in its entirety, any notion and idea from any organisation, group, and individual remotely suggesting that the 2023 election was fraudulent.”
The presidential spokesman stated that the Presidency’s position on the 2023 general election has been validated by “all non-partisan foreign and local observers”, including the African Union, ECOWAS, Commonwealth Observer Mission, and the Nigerian Bar Association.
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