The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room deployed observers across Bayelsa State for today’s gubernatorial election.
Initial reports received from across the state indicate various levels of challenges, many of which are human-induced.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room expresses its disappointment over the conduct of political actors who have failed to restrain their supporters from acts of violence. We call on the law enforcement agencies to investigate all incidents of violence in today’s election and ensure that perpetrators are made to account.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room is concerned that INEC has been unable to overcome some of the recurring challenges with elections such as late deployment of personnel and materials to the polling units. This has been widely reported in several locations across the state. We are equally disappointed with the widespread reports of failure of the card readers to authenticate fingerprints of voters. We hoped that by now INEC would have overcome the challenges related to the card reader, since the card reader is a game-changer in our electoral process at the moment.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room is seriously concerned that election has not commenced in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, as at 2:30pm. We also note that election has not commenced in several polling units in Nembe and BrassLocal Government Areas.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room hereby calls on INEC to postpone the election in all the areas where accreditation has not commenced as at 2:30pm.
We also call on the security agencies to re-enforce their deployment of personnel to theareas affected.
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This statement is issued by the partner organisations of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room present in Bayelsa State.