Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said its credibility cannot be solely assessed based on the number of petitions filed over conduct of the 2023 general elections, since litigants have the right to do so under the law.

The commission, which was reacting to The Guardian story about the litigious nature of the elections, said the report contains inaccurate figures, mix up of pre-election and post-election cases, skewed comparative perspective, and a headline that suggests that election petitions draw from the action or inaction of INEC.

In a statement by National Commissioner and Chairman (Information and Voter Education Committee), Mr. Sam Olumekun, yesterday, INEC said the number of offices contested in the 2023 elections was even higher than what The Guardian reported; and bordered on other issues like the qualification of candidates, which are outside election result disputes.

It said: “First, basic fact check on the information regularly published by the commission and available on our website would have shown that in 2023, elections were not conducted in 1,280 constituencies, including 782 state Assembly seats. On the contrary, elections were conducted in 1,491 constituencies across the country made up of one presidential, 28 governorship, 109 Senatorial, 360 House of Representatives, and 993 state Assembly constituencies.

“Similarly, the claim that state Assembly elections were held in only 28 states of the country is made on the lazy assumption that no such elections were held in the eight states of the federation where executive elections are held off-cycle.”

According to the electoral umpire, the report blamed the pre-election cases arising from the conduct of primary elections by political parties on INEC. Those, it said, were intra-party cases involving party members in which they join the commission and seek for reliefs binding on it.

Many litigants in Nigeria, it said, unfortunately file election petitions over the most improbable cases and later withdraw them, or they are dismissed by the tribunals.

“If the report had taken time to analyse the outcome of the cases decided, so far, by the tribunals, it would have discovered that out of 1,196 petitions, 712 were dismissed and 179 withdrawn. This means that in 891 cases (74.4 per cent), the tribunals found no merit in the petitions and affirmed the result of the elections conducted by INEC.’’

“It is surprising how the mere filing of petitions constitute a blot on the integrity of the recent elections conducted by INEC when, in fact, they constitute an integral part of the democratic process,” INEC said.

“Fourthly, the said report analysed the total number of petitions as if they were filed against the outcome of the election in 94 per cent of all the elective positions without considering details of the cases.

“Multiple petitions were filed by candidates and political parties as petitioners in a single constituency. For example, in one state in the South South geopolitical zone of the country, eight petitions were filed challenging the governorship election out of which seven were dismissed and one withdrawn.

“Therefore, the number of election petitions filed in respect of all elective offices will certainly outnumber the total number of constituencies/elective offices. To spread them across the constituencies and proceed to calculate the percentage is to count some constituencies several times, which is methodologically problematic and statistically illogical.”