Taofeek Lawal
The Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), Barry Andrews Member European Parliament (MEP), has scored the Nigerian electoral process. Andrews, whose group was observing the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections at designated polling units in Nasarawa State, said Nigerians have shown an appetite for democracy to grow in the country by participating in the voting process.
The EU Chief stated during an interview session with the media alongside his team while observing the elections at polling unit 058, Aunty Alice Schools Mararaba in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. He said the three polling units he had visited opened on time which shows responsibility on the part of the electoral officers and the zeal to vote on the part of the electorate despite the challenges witnessed during the February 25 presidential and parliamentary elections.
“We can see that there is an appetite for democracy in Nigeria. There’s a real thing and we hope to visit two or more polling units today. This is the seventh election since the return of democracy in 1999 and the engagement that we have had with political participants, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the judiciary and the academia underlines that there is an appetite for democracy. Having said that, of course, there are obvious challenges that cannot be ignored but it is very clear that Nigeria wants to deepen the roots of democracy here.
“There are issues that are related to the availability of cash, shortage of fuel and insecurity in some areas and then on election day itself, there were issues of the late opening of polling units and operation of BVAS and of course issues around registration. Subsequently, there were concerns about uploading information on IRev and collation of results; some of that was very challenging and made it difficult for a full assessment but all of these points are feeding into our final report.”
He said the EU will not relent in its quest to deepen democracy in Nigeria and added that any criticism made about the election is done in the spirit of partnership.
He said his team at the end of its assignment in May or June would give a full assessment of the election in its final report. He said as a matter of fact, the team would as well monitor activities at a collation centre in the LGA at the close of polling as part of its overall observation and mission.
While saying that it is too early to assess the conduct of the election so far, Andrews said, “At this stage in today’s election, it is too early to draw any conclusions about turnout, about transparency, about the operation of technology in the election but we will be assessing all of these and take note of any observation by domestic observers throughout Nigeria and that would feed into the preliminary statement that we will make on Monday in Abuja.”
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
