Improve election credibility, don’t delay electronic transmission of results, Observer group tells INEC

Collins Nnabuife – Abuja

An Observer Group, The Electoral Hub has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address the challenges of transmitting election results from the polling units in order to remove credibility questions on election results.

The Electoral Hub also asked INEC to train its Ad-hoc on the effective knowledge of BVAS and the efficient carrying out of its duties.

In a statement signed by the Director of The Electoral Hub, Princess Hamman-Obels, it said
the election was characterized by the late arrival of election materials and personnel, voting and counting of results into the night, late/delayed results upload to IReV, mal-administration at the PUs/poor ad-hoc staff performance, weak political party agents management, poor knowledge of legal framework by stakeholders, electoral violence, election related-violence against women, intimidation, voter suppression, poor institutional strategic communication, misinformation/disinformation and fake news.

The Electoral Hub said it is very concerned over attacks on women in the election in various forms such as physical harm, intimidation, vote suppression, lack of adherence to priority voting, bullying, and violent attacks.

While acknowledging some of the irregularities during the Presidential and National Assembly election, it stated that electoral personnel and materials were to be at the polling units on time across the country.

“Adequate security presence in all polling units. The presence of security will help curb voter suppression and intimidation and violence and protect the electoral personnel and materials from hoodlums.

“Ad-hoc staff should be better sensitized and trained to have improved performance of their role. Particularly as they are critical to the success and integrity of the election. We expect a good knowledge of BVAS use and the effective carrying out of duties.

“The elderly, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and Persons with Disabilities (PWD) should be given priority at the Polling Units to vote. Excellent functionality of the BVAS and Easy/Early Upload to IReV.

“In the Presidential election, the BVAS functioned excellently but upload to IReV was delayed in most places, which questioned the credibility of the election and the electoral body. Therefore, we expect that this irregularity should be addressed to improve the credibility of the upcoming elections.

“High voter turnout, especially of urban, middle class, women and girls.

“We expect a high turnout for the governorship and state assembly elections gave their importance to citizens as lower and closer levels of governance.”

It said it is important to note that voter participation is one of the criteria for determining the credibility of elections and as such we encourage Nigerians to come out and cast their votes.

The Electoral Hub also urged the political parties to desist from causing chaos and violence, it similarly urged the youth not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to cause violence and disrupt the elections.

“Our election observation centre will be actively documenting and analyzing conduct and misconduct of the election from our observers deployed across the country, media and citizen observers,” it added.

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