OSUN POST ELECTION REPORT BY CLEEN FOUNDATION.
By Emmanuel Adeniran.
Cleen Foundation, a security focused Non – Governmental Organisation (NGO) and one of the officially accredited election observers by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) accredited to observe the September 22nd, 2018 Osun State Governorship Election in a press briefing on Sunday afternoon has revealed the details of his observation reports, findings and discoveries in the Governorship Election held on Saturday. Cleen Foundation is a reputable International Organisation committed to a very peaceful and transparent electoral processes all over the world.
The Executive Director, Mr. Benson Olugbuo of the Cleen Foundation while briefing the press said: “the Osun State Governorship Election is the last major off-cycle election conducted by the INEC and a test case for preparation towards the 2019 general elections”.
Benson Olugbuo of the Cleen Foundation revealed that 90 election observers were deployed across the 30 local government areas in the State to ensure a balanced reportage and adherence to good practices expected of the security agencies on the election day.
The Cleen Foundation observation which was done with the Police Service Commission is focused at monitoring the conducts and the behaviour of the security personnel’s deployed to work on the election day to be able to unravel what that needs to be known. Cleen Foundation and the Police Service Commission coordinated an Election Security Support Centre (ESSC) in Osogbo. The ESSC received Real time information from our stationary and roving observers deployed across the State during the election. The ESSC also received calls from the members of the public asides the media and observers for timely updates and response from the field during the election. The Cleen Foundation scored the security personnel’s well on their early to the venue of the polling units across Osun State.
“Security personnel largely conducted themselves in a commendable manner. They exhibited professionalism in maintaining law and order and assisted the elderly and vulnerable to cast their votes. The available statistics from the field observation shows that 88.6% of security personnel were rated good in the overall conduct by the observers. 95% of security personnel’s were observed to be approachable, 65.7% were observed to be impartial, 30% were observed to be somewhat partial while 5.3% were observed to be partial.
The complicity and the over-zealousness of some security personnel’s were noted and observed in a couple of polling units such as in polling unit 003, Ward 4 of Ifelodun local government where election observers were prevented from using their phones contrary to INEC’s guideline that phones should not be used at the polling units by accredited voters.
The Cleen Foundation election observers noted and established that 51.3% of the voters felt very safe and secure while 48.7% of voters felt safe and secure at the polling units across the State as a result of the presence of security personnel’s during the election.
The election observers equally observed the inducements of security personnel’s in polling unit 002, Ward 08 in Irewole local government where a police officer was alleged to have collected money wrapped in an handkerchief. In a place too, a security personnel were noted to have left his place of assignment and returned while the election was ongoing in Iremo Ward 02 in Ife Central local government.
“Through the election observers deployed by the Cleen Foundation, some recommendations includes the fact that the INEC should carry out a wholistic maintenance and checks on the smart card readers ahead of the 2019 general elections, validation of the voters register across the Country to avoid issues of missing on the reporter, advised the security personnel’s to abide by the rules of engagement on the conduct personnel on election day, advocates that the security agencies should train and retrain all security personnel’s deployed on the election duty to fully understand their roles in election security management and avoid instances of some security personnel’s requesting observers to produce their permanent voters card (PVC) as a means of identification during the election day”.
The Cleen Foundation equally advised the INEC, Media, the Civil Society Organizations and political parties to improve on the continuous voters education and avoid voters insisting to vote without their PVC’s or even when their names are not on the voter’s register. They also urged all the election stakeholder’s like the INEC, security agencies and the government to ensure the prosecution and punishment of persons arrested for vote buying and other electoral offences after a thorough investigation thereby serving as deterrent to others in future elections. The Police Service Commission (PSC) should discipline police officers indicted for breach of the PSC code of conduct for police officers on election day. The Cleen Foundation calls for the sustained inter – agency collaboration among security agencies on election security management. The Cleen Foundation enjoins the government to ensure the adequate welfare of the security personnel’s deployed on election duty remain a priority.
“It will be recalled that, the Cleen Foundation is a non – governmental organization seeking to promote public safety, security and justice through empirical research, legislative advocacy in partnership with government and private sector”, Benson Olugbuo, the Cleen Foundation Executive Director concluded.
