‘Accreditation glitches, voter suppression’ — CDD releases preliminary report on polls

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a civil society organisation (CSO), has released its preliminary report on the conduct of the presidential and national assembly elections.

In the report signed by Adele Jinadu, chairperson of the CDD Election Analysis Centre, the CSO expressed concern over the late arrival of election officials to polling units.

“Where voting has started late or where processes have still not started, we encourage INEC to extend the voting period in order to enable all who want to do so to cast their ballot,” Jinadu said.

CDD also said only 10 percent of INEC officials arrived on time in the south-east, while the south-south recorded 27 percent of poll officials arriving early. 

“Data from about 5,000 election observers across the country showed late arrival of poll officials to their respective polling units across the country. CDD-EAC deployed 4,993 observers across the 36 states to keep a close watch on the conduct of the elections,” Jinadu said. 

“Across the country, almost 50 percent of INEC poll officials arrived on time for the commencement of the process. However, the south east and south south recorded the lowest percentage of poll officials arriving on time. 

“In the south east, only 10 percent of poll officials arrived at their respective polling units on time and in the south south it was 27 percent. In the northeast 42 per cent of poll officials got to their polling units on time whilst in the north west, north central and south west the figure was over 50 percent.”

Jinadu further said in Lagos, the state with the highest number of registered voters recorded just 18 percent in terms of timely arrival of INEC officials, adding that the average opening time across the country was 9:25am, compared to 8:30am when the voting was scheduled to start. 

On the availability of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS), the CDD rated the performance as 98.8 percent across polling units. 

Jinadu, however, said there were reports of glitches during the accreditation process, which contributed to delays in places such as Borno state.

“There have been some reports of violence and voter suppression in some parts of the country. We have asked our observers in the field to gather more information about these issues,” Jinadu added. 

“On the whole, we commend Nigerians on their participation and peaceful conduct so far, although we note growing reports of voters frustrated by the speed of the voting process.” 

The organisation commended Nigerians on their determination to vote, and encouraged them to remain patient.

“We urge the security agencies to ensure that they remain neutral in their electoral day activities and actions,” the CSO added. 

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has acknowledged the challenges experienced in some areas, adding that all eligible voters who are in the queue before 2:30pm will vote “no matter long it takes”.