First published on the website of TEFA on 17 February 2020.

Exactly 13 days have passed since the initial announcement of ECC’s decisions were made over adjudication of electoral complaints, and IEC too, on its part, embraced ECC’s call, acted accordingly, and began carrying out their decisions; however, TEFA’s observation findings highlight instances which require deeper attention to, which are explained as follows:

1. IEC was supposed to articulate, finalize and approve the Vote Audit and Recount Work- Plan, and share it with ECC for their perusal, but, not only did they not share it with ECC- notwithstanding ECC’s recurrent request for the work-plan-, this plan has also not been officially approved by IEC; which is a clear indication that the vote audit and recount process began and continued without a legitimate work-plan.

2. Conflict between IEC and ECC has caused many challenges to emerge in the audit and recount process, and unfortunately by far, no resolution method is in sight to resolve their conflict and to help them reach an accord. Despite this conflict, ECC has also expressed its concern and has stated that its decisions are being manipulated by IEC. ECC also added that IEC should complete the audit and recount in full conformity with their defined code of conduct using tangible material viz: ballot boxes and all other material concerned), and must not refer to their own personal archives while taking any further action.

3. Auditors at IEC are so severely under work pressure to an extent where they have inadvertently used the audit forms which were meant for the 137,000 votes, for the 102,012 votes that were casted outside the polling timeframe.

Despite the abovementioned problems, lack of a sound working coordination mechanism between EMBs, and absence of ECC delegates during the audit and recount process, the audit process was completed and announced, all of which together can strongly substantiate presidential tickets’ claims of the 2019 election’s lawlessness.

TEFA, therefore, calls upon IEC to carry out ECC’s decisions in full conformity with their defined code of conduct while respecting ECC’s consensus over the process.

DOWNLOAD: "TEFA’s Press Release on EMBs’ Conflict over Carrying out ECC’s Decisions"