The Independent National Electoral Commission has chided European Union reports alleging that the commission was not transparent in the 2023 electoral process.

In their report, the EU identified key areas that INEC should improve on, including lack of transparency in the electoral process, ambiguities in the law, the establishment of a publicly accountable process for the selection of the INEC, ensuring the real-time publication of results as well as access to election results, protection for media practitioners, and decrying the discrimination against women in elective and appointed positions as well as impunity regarding electoral offences.

Fielding questions on a monitored program on Channels Television, 'Politics Today' INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye, pointed out that transparency issues by the EU were a general statement as the commission was transparent to key stakeholders in the election.

Okoye said, "It's a very general statement in terms of transparency; this particular commission has been very transparent. We carried all the critical stakeholders along throughout the planning process for the 2023 general election. Before we released the voters register, and even after we completed the voters register, we engaged all the critical stakeholders, and when we converted our voting points and voting point settlements into full polling units, we carried everybody along.

" The moment we were planning the elections, we carried these stakeholders along. So we were very transparent in terms of our engagement with critical stakeholders.

"Even the EU made it very clear that the election was conducted in a volatile and very challenging environment, and that environment entails security challenges in many parts of the country; secondly, some of the INEC facilities were burned down, and we had to repair these facilities in a very emergency fashion; there were also challenges in different situations of the country relating to the naira redesign; and also relating to some of the transport companies we engage, so you have to look at these contexts in analyzing if INEC performed or not during the 2023 general election.

Asked if the commission regretted engaging those who disappointed Nigerians during the elections, he said, "Those who performed well far outweigh the few people that disappointed the Nigerian people and also betrayed their oath."