Collins Nnabuife
A coalition of Election Observers has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring the election of the Abia North Senatorial Election, citing disenfranchisement of voters and some irregularities they observed during the election.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the Head of the Coalition, Rasheed Shuaib said “The Senatorial election that took place in Abia North on 25th February 2023 was below the standard and acceptable electoral practice, contrary to INEC electoral Acts and guidelines, and against the wishes and expectations of the electorates/constituents”.
He said according to the INEC electoral guidelines for the election, the official opening of the polling units is by 8:30 am.
“But this was not the case in all the polling units visited by our field observers in the senatorial district as there were almost general reports of the late arrival of INEC Ad-hoc staff and electoral materials”, Shuaib said.
The election observers who said they deployed about 500 field observers for the Abia North Senatorial election, also said there was a late distribution of electoral materials to the various Registration Area Centres (RAC) across the 5 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Abia North, especially in Arochukwu and Ohafia LGAs.
“In some instances, no attached law enforcement agencies would escort the INEC materials to the various polling units. As a result, a greater number of INEC Ad-hoc staff could not proceed to their place of primary assignment on election day since the election time was almost up.
“A special case in Bende LGA, where election materials moved from the LGA headquarters early but took some time to reach most of the polling units, while voters were waiting”, he noted.
He said some polling units received their election materials between the hours of 2:30 pm and 6:00 pm as reported by their field observers at the LGA.
“The BVAS was supposed to be used to authenticate or capture the faces of the Voters in all the polling units where the elections were held, but our observers noticed that the machines were either not functioning or were not used in most of the Polling Units.
“We also observed that some INEC Officials which were originally posted to some areas were dropped and their names changed to entirely new persons as confessed by one of the Youth Corpers we interacted with”, Shuaib stated.
“The collation which was supposed to be done at the ward level was done at the LGA while some of the Youth Corpers disappeared with their result sheets and reappeared at the wee hours of the night with mutilated results and some never came back especially in some units in Bende LGA.
“On the election Saturday 25th February 2023 INEC returning officer after noticing some irregularities and logistic challenges announced to the observers, party agents and others in Ohafia, after speaking with the Resident Electoral Officer in Umuahia, that there will be a rerun election on Sunday 26th February 2023 in some places in Abia North where elections didn’t hold as a result of logistics.
“We want to put it on record that there was no rerun election in those affected places. Later around 2 pm on the 26th of February, one of the officials of INEC informed us that the elections in places where elections were never held will be done on the 27th starting by 8:30 am.
“All the voters that turned up in their numbers were disappointed and while some were still hanging around their various polling units, information came to us that the EO and the collation Officers were about to announce the results”, he added.
In their recommendations, Shuaib said “INEC should as a matter of urgency helps to calm the growing agitation in these areas where elections never held and fix a date to conduct a rerun election or cancel the elections as a result of irregularities which took place during the collation of the results which is not in line with the electoral new ACT.
“INEC should critically look into the distribution of both sensitive and non-sensitive materials ahead of the Governorship and State Assembly election. As this was a major setback in the 25th February presidential election.
“There should be an adequately attached police officer that will escort both the election materials and INEC Ad-Hoc Staff as this was one of the reasons why there was no election in some of the polling units in Ohafia, Arochukwu, etc.
“There should be an adequate arrangement between the commission and the major transport operators on how to convey the election materials to the polling units.
“There should be a proper orientation to the INEC Ad-Hoc Staff not to compromise or being influenced by any political party to do their biddings”.
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