Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, has stated that delayed commencement of an election is the first sign of failure of the process.

Amuputan noted that one of the reasons commencement of voting is delayed is the failure of logistics, warning that this must not happen on Saturday.

He said that any staff who fails to commence voting at the appropriate time would have to answer to that as there is no room for excuses.

He told the Commission’s workers to be flawless, alerting them that the world is watching.

Amupitan, who will be taking charge of an election for the first time as the Chairman of INEC following his appointment last month, spoke to staff of the Commission during a meeting at the State Office in Awka on Monday.

The meeting was part of his working visit to the state ahead of the election and coincided with the signing of the Peace Accord by political parties.

He harped on integrity, insisting that a free, fair and credible election rests squarely on the shoulders of Commission staff at all levels.

“There must not be a logistics failure,” he declared.

“The eyes of the world are on INEC, on the Resident Electoral Commissioner, and on you the Electoral Officers.

“Voting must begin at exactly 8:30 a.m. in all the 5,718 polling units across the 21 local government areas. That is non-negotiable.

“If you don’t have to sleep on Friday, don’t sleep.

“The first sign of a credible election is that it starts on time. When people wake up to hear that voting hasn’t started at 9:00 a.m., that’s already a failure, and we will not allow that to happen in Anambra,” he said.

Amupitan underscored the sanctity of Form EC8A, describing it as “the pyramid of votes in Nigeria,” adding that presiding officers must record, sign and stamp election results promptly while collation officers must ensure that the figures tally with the BVAS accreditation data before moving to the next stage.

“Ignorance of the law is not an excuse,” he warned.

He directed that corrections must be effected immediately and transparently too in a case that figures do not align as the Electoral Act provides.