Tinubu accuses Brussels of undermining the credibility of the Nigerian electoral process
July 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, has rejected the final report of the European Union Election Observer Mission (EOM) on this year’s general elections, since he considers that the document has been produced by few people.
The president’s special adviser, Dele Alake, has indicated that they consider these statements to be part of an attempt to discredit the elections that were “clearly and fairly won” by Tinubu.
“This foreign institution has been relentless in its assault on the credibility of the electoral process, on the sovereignty of our country and on our ability as a people to organize ourselves. It seems absurd and inconceivable to us that, in these times, any foreign organization, be of the whatever sign, continue to insist on your own criteria and evaluation as the only way to determine the credibility and transparency of our elections,” reads a statement.
Alake has maintained that “there is no substantial evidence provided by the European Union or by any foreign or local organization that is reliable enough to question the integrity of the election results.” Likewise, he has maintained that the elections were “credible, peaceful, free, fair” and the best organized in the country since 1999.
“Now that the organization has released what it purported to be its final report on the elections, we can categorically let Nigerians and the world know that we were no strangers to the machinations of the European Union to maintain its bias and its claims, to a large extent. unfounded measure, on the results of the elections”, the adviser maintained.
In addition, they have criticized that the report has been completed by the opinion of less than fifty observers: “With the level of personnel deployed, which barely reached an average of one person per state, we wonder how the EOM-EU was able to supervise independently the elections in more than 176,000 polling stations,” the letter indicates.
“We are convinced that the so-called final report of the EOM-EU on our recent elections is the product of poorly done office work that was largely based on a few cases of disturbances in less than 1,000 polling stations out of more than 176,000. in which Nigerians voted on election day,” says Tinubu’s adviser.
“We have every reason to believe that the report, based on the views of less than 50 observers, was merely maintaining the same premature denunciation stance contained in the preliminary EU report published in March,” he added.
Thus, Alake has criticized that, unlike the EU mission, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) deployed more than 1,000 observers throughout the country, offering “a more holistic and accurate assessment of the elections”.
Tinubu was sworn in at the end of May as the new president of the African country after winning the elections held in February, marked by allegations of fraud by various opponents who said they did not acknowledge their defeat.
The former Lagos governor, who ran as a candidate for Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), won nearly 8.8 million votes, ahead of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). –who obtained close to seven million ballots–, and Peter Obi, from the Labor Party –who obtained some 6.1 million supports–.
Tinubu replaces Muhammadu Buhari, who was unable to run as he has already served the term limit set by the Nigerian Constitution. The elections also mark the first time since the return of the country to civilian rule in 1999 in which none of the candidates is a former military leader, as was the case with Buhari, who led the country between December 1983 and August. 1985 after a coup.
