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European Union Observer Mission in its preliminary report says the Nigerian election was heavily deficient and cannot be legitimate
The European Union observer mission to the Nigerian elections in its preliminary report issued Monday, said the elections was was impeded by insufficient planning, insecurity and the prevailing Naira and fuel shortages.
There was also abuse of incumbency by various political office holders which distorted the playing field and there were widespread reports of vote buying, violence, including bribery of security and electoral officials.
“INEC’s operational capacity was hampered by the ongoing fuel and Naira shortage. Insecurity prevented it from accessing some Local Government Areas (LGAs), notably in the South.” The statement read pointing to the fact that many LGAs in the south elections were not held.
The EU observed that the Nigerian people expected the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be up to the task of administering a free, fair and credible election but failed on all fronts.
“INEC lacked efficient planning and transparency during critical stages of the electoral process, while on election day trust in INEC was seen to further reduce due to delayed polling processes and information gaps related to much anticipated access to results on its Results Viewing Portal (IReV).” The report read.
It noted various other failings of the INEC namely the voter register was not audited and staff were not fully trained in IT.
“Of the 93 million registered voters, some 87 million collected their voter card, 93.3 per cent of the total. INEC did not disclose how many of the 9.5 million newly registered collected their card. Data was also not broken down to polling unit level.”
The report highlighted that PVC collection was negatively affected by poor logistics, incorrect designated collection offices, and excessively long queues at understaffed collection points. There were also reports of proxy collection and PVC buying.
The new voting procedures stipulated by the Electoral Act of 2022 enhanced confidence of Nigerians in the introduction of new technology for voter verification and electronic transmission of results forms.
“BVAS was used for biometric facial and fingerprint voter verification and for scanning and uploading the forms. INEC used the IReV portal for publication of results to enhance transparency and trust and to minimise malpractices.”
But all these failed on election day in many polling units which has led to the current dissatisfaction with the results being released by INEC.
The EU observers also noted that the mock test of the IT systems prior to election day was carried out by professional staff instead of election day polling staff.
“There was delayed recruitment and training of key technical support staff as well as of polling staff handling BVAS. On election day, a BVAS offline option to upload results forms, in case of weak internet connection, was largely unused, which contributed to issues with the transmission of the results forms.” The report stated.
The report also pointed out that the presidential results from polling units were probably altered due to deliberate late transmission.
“EU EOM observers noted that the number of accredited voters was not always sent from BVAS regularly after the closing. Further, scans of presidential elections results forms were often impossible to upload, unlike House of Representatives and Senate at least partly.”
“Delays and frictions in the IReV portal prevented smooth access to view the scans. Assurances from INEC that system was adequately prepared and tested were undermined by the systems’ performance, thus contributing to diminishing public trust and confidence in results processing.”
The report noted that it will continue to observe the collation process and the gubernatorial elections slated for March 11 before issuing a final report.
Akowe with reports from Lagos
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