. Say Abia guber poll meets int’l commendation

By Steve Oko

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been urged to engage more women of proven integrity like the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri, FUTO, Professor Nnenna Oti, as Returning Officers during elections in Nigeria to help checkmate electoral fraud.

International observer groups including Pan African Women Projects (PAWP), which monitored the just-concluded general elections gave the advice at a press conference Thursday in Umuahia.

The observers commended the bravery and integrity of Professor Oti who served as the INEC Returning Officer for the Abia State governorship election, saying her role and firmness made the people’s votes and mandate count.

They declared that despite some observed challenges, the March 18 governorship and the house of assembly elections in Abia met international commendations of free, transparent and peaceful conduct of electoral process.

The spokesperson of PAWP, Ms Bontle Matjila, who spoke for the observer groups, also recommended that INEC should increase the duration of training for its ad-hoc staff before every election to enable them to gain adequate knowledge in the use of technology for the election.

The observers noted with concern some of the shortfalls of the 2023 elections especially the non-transmission of presidential election results directly from polling units using the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS machines as earlier assured by INEC.

They called on INEC to immediately return the Commission’s Director for ICT whose brainchild is the BVAS technology but was redeployed as Administrative Secretary to one of the states to INEC headquarters to effect necessary upgrades and protocols that will enhance the performance of BVAS in subsequent elections.

The observers strongly advocated that BVAS should be upgraded to include electronic voting where accreditation and voting are processed from the same device, saying that such will significantly cut down on paper production, and eliminate ballot papers and also shrink INEC’s huge budget line.

They, however, noted that, unlike the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections where presidential election results were not uploaded via the BVAS at polling units, there was significant improvement during the March 18 governorship and the house of assembly polls where about 79% of the results were successfully uploaded.

The observers equally noted that there was serious vote buying and influence of voters’ choice during the governorship election.

They said there were pockets of violence and intimidation observed in all three senatorial zones of Abia State.

On security, they said:” Many polling units we observed in this election had no security personnel on duty which was very unprofessional of the security agencies despite the assurances that the security agencies repeatedly gave to the electoral body and the government and citizens regarding the safety and peace during the election”.

They advised INEC against the usual dependence on Road Transport Workers for the movement of election materials and personnel as they cause unnecessary delays in the process.

According to them, INEC should consider using drones to deploy key voting materials to voting centres while Presiding Officers advance ahead of time.

” INEC should look beyond Road Transport Workers for transport services as they are usually and often manipulated by corrupt politicians.”

On the ad-hoc staff, they said, ” INEC should look into the quality of the personnel they sent out to the field for election duty as young and hungry NYSC members are easily induced by corrupt politicians and party people.”

They suggested the use of disciplined religious bodies and organisations with pedigree.

The observers decried voter apathy which was more pronounced during the governorship and house of assembly elections, a development they blamed on discouragement arising from the manipulations that characterised the presidential and national assembly elections.

” Out of the total 93.47 million registered voters, only 24.9 million persons representing 26.27 per cent voted in the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections”.

The observers, however, commended INEC for the early arrival of voting materials at the polling units during the Abia governorship election.

Pan African Women Projects, is an international non governmental organization of African women from 54 nations of Africa and the diaspora, with its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.