‘Threats of violence, oversized polling units’ — YIAGA raises concerns over Ekiti guber

YIAGA Africa, a civil society organisation (CSO), has expressed worry over preparations for the Ekiti governorship election scheduled for June 18.

The organisation listed its concerns in a statement issued on Thursday by Samson Itodo and Ezenwa Nwagwu, executive director and board member of the CSO, respectively.

According to YIAGA, issues such as high population of voters for some polling units, as well as threats of violence may affect the smooth conduct of the polls.

“Yiaga Africa commends efforts by INEC to improve voter access to polling units by creating an additional 250 polling units in Ekiti State. Yiaga Africa is however concerned about the imbalance in the distribution of voters to polling units as INEC is yet to address concerns about oversized polling units,” the statement reads.

“Based on INEC’s final list of polling units there are 75 polling units with over 1000 registered voters, 11 with over 2000 voters and 1 polling unit with 3,429 registered voters. Yiaga Africa is also concerned about the lack of adequate public information on the new polling unit’s location and the distribution of voters to these polling units.

“The decision to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will no doubt improve the quality and transparency of elections. While the Commission conducted a mock exercise in a few polling units to test the functionality of the BVAS, we are worried about the low public participation in the exercise.

“Yiaga Africa hopes that the capacity gaps and technology challenges highlighted in our report on the Federal Capital Territory Council elections in February 2022 have been addressed, to ensure that eligible voters are able to vote on election day.

“As enshrined in the INEC guidelines, the conclusiveness of the election will be determined by a comparison of the total number of voters who collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and margin of lead between the first two candidates.

“To safeguard the transparency of election results, it is imperative for INEC to publish the disaggregated data of the number of PVCs collected per polling unit. While INEC has revealed that 76% of PVCs have been collected in Ekiti State, the collection will end on June 16, 2022. As soon as the PVC collection is suspended, Yiaga Africa urges INEC to provide updated figures of PVCs collected before election day and make this information available on its website.

“We applaud the decision of INEC to refrain from storing sensitive materials at the Central Bank of Nigeria due to allegations of partisanship levelled against the Governor of the CBN. This shift in the protocol for managing the deployment of sensitive materials places a huge responsibility on INEC to ensure the safety and security of sensitive materials as well as effective deployment to LGAs and Registration Centres.

“Key stakeholders and the public should be adequately informed of INEC’s new strategy for the deployment of sensitive materials. Additionally, the security agencies should support the quest for credible and peaceful polls by providing adequate security to INEC to guarantee the safety of sensitive materials and timely deployment to the polling units.

“Yiaga Africa is concerned with the increasing clashes among political parties and their supporters resulting in heightened tension in the state. These conflicts increase the threats of violence on Election Day. Yiaga Africa is worried about the disturbing reports of some known polling units in Ado-Ijigbo ward in Ado Ekiti that are prone to violence. In past elections, voters have been denied access and chased with machetes.

“While the contesting political parties and candidates have committed to a Peace Accord, the security agencies need to deploy with competence, professionalism, and neutrality on Election Day. Upholding these principles will prevent incidents of violence on Election Day and secure lives and properties.”

The CSO also appealed to INEC officials, security agencies, political party candidates and their supporters, as well residents of the state to “work together to ensure that the Ekiti governorship election is credible and peaceful”.