Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
ABUJA: The Centre for Democracy and Development(CDD) Election Analysis Centre, has commended Nigerians for trooping out in large numbers to cast their vote, in spite of the numerous challenges faced, during the rescheduled presidential and national assembly elections on Saturday, February 23, 2019.
This is just as they noted, that Nigerian voters are the winners of the elections, as they took ownership of the voting process as engaged citizens determined to make their votes count.
The Chair, Election Analysis Centre, Prof. Adele Jinadu, made these known on Monday in a press briefing on the Final Election-Day Report for the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly Elections in Abuja.
Prof. Jinadu, also commended the determination of Nigerians to exercise their franchise despite the odds militating against their ability to do so and expressed hope that the identified problems on election day will be addressed adequately and urgently.
On some challenges in the election, the Analysis Centre, noted with dismay the violence that marred the polls in some areas in Lagos, Ebonyi, Imo, Rivers, Osun, Oyo, Delta, Kogi and Akwa Ibom.
According to Jinadu, “We surmise over twenty people have so far been confirmed killed on election day. While ballot box snatching, voting disruption severely dampened morale in Lagos and some of the states mentioned.
“We are in particular concerned about the killing and abduction of election officials. More importantly, is the new trends of ballot snatching and destruction that leads to cancellation or inconclusive elections?”.
Furthermore, he reported that vote-buying was observed in some polling units in Bayelsa, Enugu, Kano and Osun states, adding however, that the most disturbing was the situation where party agents go around with voters’ register, hustle voters and negotiate for their votes.
“We also observed voters willingly selling their votes to the highest bidder. The telephone was a valuable tool utilised in the vote-buying and selling transactions.
“Other electoral malpractices reported by our observers include harassment of voters by thugs, arrest of observers by security agents, snatching of ballot boxes, stuffing of ballot papers”, he said.
The Centre Chair, also pointed out that there were high-profile incidents of disruption of voting processes through the abuse of the power of incumbency in states such as Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Imo, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos and Rivers, where huge supporters escorted politicians to the polling units.
The Analysis Centre stated that it was concerned with INEC’s attitude in areas such as the late response of INEC to election-related incidents and challenges referred to it from polling units on election day and INEC’s poor communication with stakeholders.
In the area of fake news, the CDD-EAC fact checker system said it identified disinformation in the form of; anti APC/anti-PDP; anti INEC; and anti-system narratives that were targeted at weakening confidence in the integrity of the political system and the electoral process, adding that the manipulation of information was a trend in the news on the delivery of electoral material.
He called on INEC to improve its Communication networks with stakeholders as well as enforce guidelines that prevent VIPs from ambushing the voting process with their entourage.
The EAC urged all Nigerians to be calm, not to provoke and to be provoked, as they await the final declaration of results by INEC.
