The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has tendered the final report of the European Union Observer Mission on the February 25 presidential election as evidence before Presidential Election Petition Court.
The PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar through his lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN), tendered the EU report while cross-examining an INEC witness, Lawrence Bayode.
INEC, which was joined as a defendant in Atiku’s petition, opened its defence on Monday to prove that the presidential election was credible.
While being cross-examined by Uche, the INEC witness admitted that INEC had yet to upload all the results of the presidential election onto the IRev as of March 1, 2023, when Tinubu was declared winner of the poll.
According to the witness, only 31 per cent of the presidential election result was uploaded onto INEC’s result viewing portal.
He admitted that there was a technical glitch that affected the uploading of the presidential election results which was not reported to Amazon Web Services by the commission.
In its final report presented last week, the EU had declared the election was below expectations.
The Chief Observer of the EU Election Observation Mission, Barry Andrews, at a press briefing, said, “The election exposed enduring systemic weaknesses and therefore signal a need for further legal and operational reforms to enhance transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability.”
The EU also said the conduct of the election diminished public trust in INEC.
