THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fell short of citizens’ expectations in the Saturday presidential election, according to the Yiaga Africa.

Yiaga said the election did not hold in several polling units nationwide due to significant logistics challenges that the electoral body could have prevented.

The organisation indicated this in a press conference held on Sunday, February 26, at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

The press statement was jointly signed by Dr Hussaini Abdu, the Chairman of Watching The Vote Working Group, and Samson Itodo, Yiaga Africa’s executive director.

Abdu expressed concern about the unexplained delay in uploading polling unit results on the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

He noted, “As of 10pm on election day, results for the Presidential election were not uploaded on the INEC portal after voting and counting ended in several polling units.

“At 9am on February 26, INEC uploaded only 25,503 results for the Presidential elections on the INEC portal.”

Abdu said this undermined the public’s confidence in the results transmission process, adding that the electoral body had failed to abide by the election guidelines.

He indicated that Yiaga Africa has “an estimation of vote shares each candidate should receive on the ballots cast at each polling unit”, adding the organisation would not hesitate to expose INEC if the election results were manipulated.