Osun Election: Nigeria Civil Society Situation Society Room gives assessment on Election.
By Emmanuel Adeniran
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, one of the Accredited Election Observer’s Groups by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the Saturday September 22nd, 2018 Governorship Election made its summary observation known to the public in a press briefing in Osogbo on Sunday in Osogbo, the Osun State Capital.
The Convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room and the Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Mr. Clement Nwankwo while addressing the press said: “polling units across the State opened early for accreditation and voting as early as 8am in the morning throughout the State on the election day. Large crowds had built up at most pollings units at 7am with lots of enthusiastic voters waiting to begin participation in the voting process”.
Clement Nwankwo however lamented the slow process of accreditation as a result of the malfunctioning of the smart card readers and the effect of authenticating the fingerprint of voters as the major cause. He said: “some women and elderly persons were given separate queues and voting priorities in some polling units across the State. In almost all polling units visited by the Situation Room, there were still issues of accessibility of Polling Units by person’s with disabilities (PWDs). The earlier promised made by the INEC that the use of Braille would be used for the visually impaired voters were reneged upon”.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room expressed concern on the pattern of setting up some polling units across the State and alleged that such development failed in protecting the secrecy and privacy of votes and ballot papers used for the election thereby creating continuous concern on the issue of vote buying at the polling units on the election day.
“The efforts and the contributions towards the success of the election by the Security Personnel’s deployed for the conducts of the Governorship election at the various voting centres were well commended by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room. The Situation Room equally acknowledged a reduction in vote buying as a result of the strict compliance and adherence to instructions by the security personnel’s to disallow voters takes their smart phones to the cubicle area where the ballot papers are expected to be thumprinted by the voters. There were also a diverse presence of multi-agency security personnel which included the Military, Police, DSS, FRSC, Civil Defence Corps, Prison, Immigration and Customs Services.
The Situation Room equally commended the political parties and the people of Osun State for the peaceful manner in which they conducted themselves well during the Saturday Governorship Election in Osun State. Situation Room used the opportunity to Call on the INEC to intensify the training of the different cadres of its staff to enhance their understanding of election duties and increase their confidence and ability to respond to election day challenges.
“On the collation of election results, the Situation Room is concerned that the process of collation is delayed and appears to happen mostly at night when the political parties, candidates, observers and other election stakeholder’s may have depleted away from observation of the process, most especially with fears of insecurity. Situation Room called for a change of such a trend and demanded for an improvement and new innovation introduced in its processes.
“The Situation Room also calls on the INEC to open up its electronic collation system to the independent election observers and other stakeholder’s involved in the electoral proceses for a better understanding of it and to enable the INEC win more wider support for its use and erase the current doubt or suspicion that had beclouded the use of the electronic collation system”.
“Situation Room urged the INEC to return to its previous practice of immediate publication of polling units election results as well as the comprehensive details of collated results such like form EC60A on it’s website to enable the public have an unrestricted access to it”.
Other partners in the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room includes the Executive Director, Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) and a Member of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR), David O. Anyaele; Chuks Ojidoh, the Deputy Director, Community Life Project (CLP) / Reclaim Naija; Mufuliat Fijabi, the Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Women Trust Fund; Biodun Oyeleye, the Executive Director, New Initiative for Social Development (NISD) and a Member of the Steering Committee for the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NSCCR) and Idowu Bukola, the Osun State Representatives of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NSCCR) as well as the Executive Director, KIMPACT.
