Nigerian polls ‘failed to meet expectations’ – US envoy

 The US ambassador to Nigeria has said the 25 February elections “failed to meet Nigerians’ expectations”.

In a statement, Mary Leonard urged the electoral commission to address the hitches it experienced before the governorship polls on 11 March.

“It is clear that the electoral process as a whole on 25 February failed to meet Nigerians’ expectations,” the US ambassador said.

“We thus reiterate our call on Inec [Independent National Electoral Commission] to promptly address the challenges that can be resolved ahead of the 11 March gubernatorial elections,” Ms Leonard said.

The envoy urged Inec to be more transparent as it makes reforms on the elections systems.

She commended the presidential poll losers, opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of Labour Party, for pledging to go to court to challenge the outcome of the vote.

Inec has said it will deploy its voter identification system for the 11 March elections and pledged to punish its officials found to have compromised the presidential election.

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