Issued: 10:00 am, Friday, 7th November 2025
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room) has convened in Awka, Anambra State to observe the Anambra State Governorship election scheduled for Saturday, 8th November 2025. The election will take place in 5,718 polling units of the 326 electoral wards across the 21 Local Government Areas of the State.
This election heralds the first major assignment of the new National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, who was appointed a few weeks ago as the top helmsman of the election management body in the country.
Situation Room acknowledges the assurance given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that it is fully prepared for the election, assuring that there will be no inadequacy with logistics and deployment, and notes the assurance of the Police, as the lead agency on election security, that security personnel deployed for the elections are properly trained to conduct themselves professionally and within the civil rules of engagement.
Given the State’s strategic importance and high stakes politically, credible conduct of this poll will reinforce public trust in the democratic process in the South-East, and contribute to national momentum for democratic deepening democracy in Nigeria.
Situation Room has deployed accredited observers who have been trained specifically for this election and would also be receiving reports from its partner organisations and networks as well as citizens observers from across the Local Government Areas of the State through its Election Reporting App deployed for the election. For this election, Situation Room partners will be observing across different thematic areas such as Ballot Integrity, Campaign Finance, Security, Misinformation and Disinformation, Mandate Protection and Inclusion. Their observation and reports will also feed into our own report of the election.
Pre-election Environment
Situation Room notes with some degree of satisfaction the relatively peaceful atmosphere in Anambra State. This is in contrast to the very tensed situation under which the last governorship election held in the State. Situation Room believes that the state of anomaly was partly due to incessant and deliberate acts of misinformation and disinformation that permeated the state at the time.
Situation Room hopes that this positive ambience will help drive voters to the polls to exercise their democratic franchise tomorrow, Saturday, 8th November 2025 given that Anambra State continues to be among the states with the lowest rate of voter turnout.
INEC and Election Administration
INEC’s role in ensuring and determining the credibility of this election is indisputable. While being somewhat assured by the promises of election preparedness by INEC, we are ever mindful of the critical areas in the process that must be effectively managed.
We note that at this time, both sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to the local government level. INEC has stated its deployment of 3,000 vehicles and 83 boats to convey men and materials for the election, including 24,000 ad-hoc staff and 6,879 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines, to the Registration Area Centres (RACs) and Polling Units across the State.
With the somewhat peaceful political environment leading to this election, Situation Room expects to see:
- Early deployment of personnel and materials to the polling units and timely opening of polls, precisely at 8:30am across board including the riverine voting locations. INEC must ensure vehicles and personnel are adequately briefed on their routes to avoid being misdirected and arriving late at the polling units.
- Good knowledge of election procedures and effective use of the BVAS devices by poll officials.
- Functional and fully powered BVAS devices.
- Transparent result tabulation and collation process. Inefficient process leading to desperate politicians tempering with election results, as observed in some of the recent off-cycle governorship elections has dented the credibility of elections in Nigeria. INEC must avoid it in this election.
- Real-time upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal.
- Inclusivity: Situation Room greatly welcome INEC’s deployment of Sign Language Interpreters in partnership with TAF Africa, a member organisation of the Situation Room, to the respective polling units of voters with hearing loss or deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) in this election. We hope that this leads to a broader inclusion of persons with disability in the political process in Nigeria.
Situation Room will be holding INEC accountable for all of the above.
Election Security
We note the deployment of personnel by the security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police Force with a contingent of 45,000 personnel. We note that this is a rather high number and while we acknowledge the need to secure the election, the number of deployment in this election is a clear manifestation of deficits within our democratization process. After 26 years of regular elections, it is expected that with each election cycle, there will be a draw down in the number of security personnel in elections. The presence circumstances, partly created by antics of desperate politicians, is unacceptable. The conduct of security personnel deployed for this election must be professional and not seen as intimidating to voters in any way.
Situation Room expects that the presence of security agencies in Anambra State will provide a level-playing environment for all parties, deter vote buying and selling, and uphold the sanctity of the election results. We call on the Police and other security agencies to ensure their contact centres are active and can respond effectively to reported issues especially in flashpoints that have been identified prior to now.
Political Parties
Situation Room observes a concerning lack of competitiveness demonstrated by several political parties participating in this election. A robust and healthy level of competition is fundamental to a thriving democracy. When a political party indicates an intention to participate in an election and fields a candidate, it carries the inherent obligation to generate the requisite degree of electoral competitiveness.
Political parties are obligated to deploy the full complement of accredited party agents for this election. Failure to ensure full coverage of polling units and collation centres by political parties will demonstrate a dereliction of fundamental duty to the democratic system. Such parties lose their moral compass to complain about irregularities.
Anambra Voters: Situation Room calls on all eligible voters to come out and peaceful exercise their civic duty tomorrow, Saturday, 8th November 2025, while avoiding selling their votes in the process. Selling of votes is illegal and undermines the development of the State.
Conclusion
Recent elections have been fraud with irregularities, but we remain hopeful that this governorship election will be a departure. As we go into the polls tomorrow, we wish Ndi Anambra a peaceful electoral outing.
SIGNED:
Yunusa Z. Ya’u
Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room
Mimidoo Achakpa
Co-Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room
Franklin Oloniju
Co-Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room
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The Situation Room is made up of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in support of credible elections and governance in Nigeria numbering more than seventy. The Steering Committee is made up of: Action Aid Nigeria, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), CLEEN Foundation, Emma Ezeazu Centre for Good Governance and Accountability (formerly Alliance for Credible Elections, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Kimpact Development Initiative, Democratic Action Group (DAG), Women’s Rights to Education Programme, Joint National Association of Persons with Disability (JONAPWD), DIG Ebonyi, Life and Peace Development Organization (LAPDO), Rural Youth Initiative, Challenged Parenthood Initiative (CPI), Centre for Health and Development in Africa (CHEDA) and Josemaria Escriva Foundation.
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