The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, says that the conduct of the Ekiti Governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a marked improvement on FCT area councils election.
Convener of Situation Room, Ene Obi said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, saying that the election was generally peaceful.
Obi said that Situation Room noted an appreciable improvement in INEC’s logistics and election administration.
She said that this was especially with the early arrival of election officials and materials at the polling units, leading to early opening of poll.
“This is a welcome improvement from what was observed in both the Anambra State Governorship Election 2021 and FCT Area Councils Election 2022.
“Our observations indicate that the Bi-Modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) was functional in at least 76 per cent of the voting locations.
“Also, reports from field observers indicate that it takes at least three minutes to accredit a voter using the BVAS in 41 per cent of the locations observed.
“ Going by this, the BVAS would have successfully accredited 20 voters per hour on the average in the affected voting locations,” she said.
Obi said that consequently, INEC would need to double its effort to improve on the turnaround time of the BVAS of one minute per voter for a seamless process on election day.
She said that Situation Room observed that INEC’s result portal went live on time, with 45 per cent of the polling unit results already uploaded as at 5:00pm on election day.
She added that by 9:00p.m., the upload was at 98 per cent with results from 10 of the 16 Local Government Areas ( LGAs) fully uploaded.
“ This is a marked improvement from the FCT Area Councils’ Elections in February 2022,” she said.
Obi said that reports from Situation Room observers revealed that sorting and counting of votes at the polling units went well.
She said that the collation process commenced peacefully towards the evening on the election day and extended into the night.
She said that Situation Room noted that poll officials gave priority to Persons with Disabilities voters, elderly persons and pregnant women in most of the polling units observed.
She added that Situation Room observed that the issue of vote-buying, and selling continued unabatedly.
She said that Situation Room also noted that security officials arrived the polling units on time and were civil in their conduct.
She commended the people of Ekiti for their peaceful conduct throughout the voting process.
She added that the turnout of voters was also very good and at an average of almost 50 per cent when compared to the number of PVCs collected.
She hoped that lessons would be drawn from the election process to improve on future elections in Nigeria.
Discussion about this post