Issued: 10:00 am, Sunday November 22, 2015
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, after observing the Kogi State Governorship election held on Saturday, 21st November 2015, and based on aggregated reports from the field, now makes the following statement:
- On a general note, the election process went well across Kogi State, with election officials turning up and carrying out their responsibilities in most polling units visited.
- Situation Room observed that despite the slight delays encountered in setting up across polling stations, the time of arrival of polling officials and materials across the state was largely satisfactory. There were however reports of incidents in Dekina LGA where trained ad-hoc election staff were precipitately replaced with other persons, which in some instances resulted in the display of a lack of understanding of basic procedures for the election as well as the use of the card reader.
- There were some issues with the siting of polling units such that in some locations, the polling units were sparsely located and in some others, clustered within close proximity to each other. In addition, we observed that some polling units were located in shops, in open street corners and bus stops and in front of palaces, unlike the traditional locations such as public schools.
- There were also reported cases of card reader malfunctioning leading to difficulty in conducting electronic accreditation caused by the inability to verify fingerprints. In addition, we observed many locations where there was inadequate number of Incident forms or failure to use them, even when there were problems of electronic accreditation. We are concerned that some of the incidents of malfunctioning of card readers may have been deliberately created to allow for the use of manual accreditation.
- Situation Room especially commends the presence and conduct of security personnel during the election. We also commend the Police for effectively collaborating with Observers to ensure hitch free elections. Situation Room is however concerned that the challenging recurrence of logistical difficulties during elections remains persistent, with inadequate provisions made in the mobilisation, deployment and welfare. The situation was made dire by the fact that most of the security personnel were mobilised from distant locations to Kogi State, with very limited provisions made for their basic needs. We believe that this issue should be urgently addressed in the light of the forthcoming elections in Bayelsa State.
- Situation Room expresses concern over reports of ballot and election materials snatching by political thugs in some polling units in Dekina LGA resulting in the cancellation of the elections in some of those locations by INEC
- Situation Room observers also witnessed incidents of financial inducements of voters within the vicinity of specific polling units as well as attempts by some party agents to intimidate polling officials.
STATE LOCKDOWN AND IMPACT ON INTER-STATE MOVEMENT
- Situation Room is concerned with the practice of total lockdown of cities and states during elections. In the particular case of the Kogi State elections, the military personnel, deployed for the elections prevented inter-state travellers from continuing their journey, causing severe hardship on citizens who had no business with the elections and only happened to be transiting through the state on election day.
- Situation Room calls on the authorities to work out better mechanisms for ensuring safety and security without hindering movements of citizens, especially when they have to cross state boundaries in the ordinary course of their livelihood, as witnessed here in Kogi, being a major transit state for travellers across the country.
Conclusion
- In conclusion, we observe that most of the flaws are recurrent and a common feature of elections in Nigeria. Therefore, the challenge for the new leadership of INEC is to address these problems in a holistic manner but specifically:
- Enhance the quality of training for electoral officers and avoid incidents of replacement of trained ad-hoc officials during the elections.
- Provide finger-cleansing materials at polling units to ensure ease of fingerprint authentication during accreditation.
- Situation Room calls on political parties to take responsibility for training and orientation of their supporters to ensure that they act within the ambit of the law.
- Situation Room requests security agencies to guarantee adequate welfare provisions for every security personnel mobilised for future elections by ensuring provision of proper accommodation, board and allowances before and during election duties.
- Situation Room deployed a total of 70 members to observe the conduct of the elections across the entire state and also relied on reports from peer groups and networks and community members. Various methods of observation and information gathering were deployed including stationed polling unit observers, roving observers and, with the support of the Nigeria Police Force, aerial surveillance by helicopters during both the accreditation and voting phases of the election.
- The Situation Room is an election engagement platform comprising of more than 70 civil society organizations and networks that deployed its members and partners to observe the elections in all of the 21 local government areas across all 239 wards of Kogi State.
This statement is issued by the partner organisations of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room present in Kogi State.
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