Wednesday, 25 June, 2014 - Women Arise For Change Initiative as an INEC accredited group observed the June 21 governorship elections in Ekiti State and is of the view that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has done a far better job over the last gubernatorial elections in Anambra State.
Wednesday, 25 June, 2014 - Women Arise For Change Initiative as an INEC accredited group observed the June 21 governorship elections in Ekiti State and is of the view that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has done a far better job over the last gubernatorial elections in Anambra State.
All election materials were at the camping site a day before polling. Poll workers were present at the camp on the eve of the election, there was heavy presence of security officials at the camp, and the camp was well manned by security officials.
The logistic arrangement for the election was very impressive as all the materials needed for the election were made available and on time. There was a proper arrangement for the materials and the electoral officers to be moved to and from their respective polling units. In almost all the polling units covered, the poll officials arrived early with all the necessary materials except in very few cases.
More than 85% of the polling units across the state had all election materials, including the voter’s list, stamps, indelible ink, the correct ballot papers and sufficient quantities of the materials.
Presiding Officers and their team arrived early before 8am at most of the polling units in the Ado-Ekiti metropolis, Iye Ekiti, and Ikere Ekiti. But there was late arrival of election materials and officials in some wards at Iyin Ekiti, Igede Ekiti and Aisegba Ekiti this was not significant to mare the conduct of the election if compared with other places where materials and officials arrived early.
Most of the presiding officers comported themselves well throughout the election. The poll officials performed creditably well during the election. A lot of them demonstrated excellent knowledge of the electoral processes except for a few who didn’t quite show evidence of sound training. The poll officials demonstrated impartiality in their conduct all through the election. Polling units were opened with adequate set-up and introduction. Most of the polling units were set up in such a way that ensures secrecy of the ballot marking process.
Most of the party agents arrived the polling units before the opening of the polling units. The prominent presence of the 3 major political parties’ agents that is APC, PDP and LP was noted in all the polling units. The party agents related well with one another, they accorded themselves respect and also helped to maintain peace at the polling units. The presence of international and domestic observers and monitors was noticed in most of the polling units across the state. Generally, poll officers were adequate for the election.
In most of the polling units accreditation started between 8am – 8:30am. The accreditation and voting process was explained to the voters by the Presiding Officers in most of the polling units observed and the accreditation was conducted in a very orderly manner. Voter’s register was available at every polling station for accreditation. However, there were isolated cases where voters who came out to vote did not find their names in the register provided by INEC.
There was no special arrangement for the physically challenged and elderly persons to ensure their participation in the elections, young voters in some of the polling units however, gave them some priority.
In almost all the polling units observed by our team voting started between 12:30 except in some few places where there were large turnouts of voters or where poll officials arrived late such as Ogbon Ado Street.
The Presiding Officer stamped the ballot paper and signed before they were issued to the voters. The ballot materials i.e. ballot boxes and ballot papers were available for the elections in every polling station. The logos of the political parties were all included in the ballot papers.
The voters marked their ballots in secret without being observed by anyone. There were no complaints or objections lodged during the process in all the polling units observed by our team. The election officials performed their duties impartially. Voting continued to the end without interruption, disturbance, violence, suspension or postponement.
The party agents throughout the voting periods were able to operate freely without any obstruction. However, some attempts of vote buying was observed in Ikole, Ado-Ekiti but this was stopped by the security officials. There was no incidence of ballot snatching in the areas covered.
In all the polling units observed, the ballot papers were properly sorted in the presence of the party agents, voters, security agents and election observers. The counting was done in a participatory manner by all present at the polling units with the results declared openly. At the end of the counting and declaration of the results all the party agents signed the results and were given a sheet each as prescribed by the law and consequently the results were pasted by the poll officials in open spaces in the polling units.
There was significant security presence across the state. Armed military personnel mounted stop and search units along major roads and though this was intimidating initially, it was perhaps helpful in deterring incidents of violence, movement of political thugs and other threats to peace and security as no major incident was recorded.
Deployment of security personnel to polling stations was also well coordinated as most polling units had at least 2 security agents. However, the urban areas had more security presence at polling stations. Security officials posted to polling station were unarmed. In most cases, they arrived early, escorted the INEC officials and materials to the various units, stayed for the duration of the election and escorted the INEC officials to collation centres after the election. The military personnel wore a special blue band round their left arm, this we are told was to stop fake soldiers from the scene of the election.
Security officials at polling units conducted themselves professionally. They were approachable, impartial and alert. Most observers noted that the polling units had adequate security and in areas where security presence at the polling units was inadequate, they called for back-up and this was promptly provided. There were a few incident of use of force, but in most places where these were recorded, it also reportedly necessary and proportionate.
In some polling units, it was observed that the numbers of voters were far above 500 persons and there was no arrangement for additional polling units to mop up the excess.
In some places in Ogbon Ado inadequacy of polling officials was observed. At least 3 poll officials were expected to be at the polling unit, only 1 or 2 are found.
It was observed that enough vehicles were not provided for the poll officials, some of them trekked some distance with the election materials.
In spite of the successes recorded by INEC in Ekiti,WA makes the following recommendations to the electoral body:
-INEC’s logistics deployment strategy requires urgent and immediate revision and should take advantage of the staggered elections to focus and better coordinate its resources to ensure that materials and persons arrive early at the various units
-INEC should undertake a review and harmonization of the voter’s register to reduce incidence of missing names.
-More attention should be paid to training and re-training of INEC’s ad hoc staff
-Efforts need to be made by INEC to split polling units with more than 500 registered voters to reduce the challenges faced by poll officials in such units
-INEC needs to ensure that adequate numbers of poll officials are posted to the polling units to ensure a hitch free electoral process at the polling units.
-INEC must as a matter of urgency consider special logistics arrangement for riverine, coastal and other difficult terrains.
We congratulate INEC, the Nigeria Police Force, the Army and other security agencies for a job well done. We congratulate the people of Ekiti State for the peaceful conduct of the election.
If the conduct of the gubernatorial election in Ekiti State is anything to go by, we can safely conclude that the present day INEC is set to restore Nigeria back to the path of a transparent, free and fair, democratic elections.
Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin
President