On Wednesday, two civil society groups, the Justice Development and Peace Commission and the Community Life Project, presented a preliminary report on Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
The groups, observers during the elections, presented the report at the JDPC centre, in Sabo Yaba, in Lagos, following a review of Saturday’s elections.
They identified some flaws in the exercise and asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to modify its processes for an acceptable outcome of the March 11 governorship and House of Assembly polls across states.
The executive director of JPDC, Raymond Aniwafe, said the group deployed 272 observers to the February 25 election. He mentioned that before the election, the body monitored the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from December 12, 2022, to February 5, 2023.
The director said the turnout of voters at the polling booths was huge and an improvement on the previous elections. He commended civil society groups and the media for good voter education before the election.
“Most of the flaws of the election were human-induced ones that could be prevented if the regulatory body recruited the right persons and trained them well for the project. The malfunction of the BVAS machine that failed to transmit election result when it most needed cast doubt on the honesty of INEC and its ad hoc staff that manned those devices at the polls,” he said.
Ngozi Iwere, the executive director of CLP, said Nigerians should not be deterred from participating in the leadership selection process.
Ms Iwere faulted some of the dispositions of security operatives at the election, noting that a proper security network of elections would give people confidence in the process.
She decried the activities of thugs at polling units and urged the people to stand up for their rights, calling on the police to protect the people.
(NAN)
