Saturday’s elections well executed, says TMG, HEDA

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) under the Election Observation Platform (EOP) have released the overall preliminary assessment of Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections across the country, concluding that the process was “relatively well executed”.

In the preliminary report, signed by the TMG Chairperson, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi and Chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraju, the groups also urged parties who are not satisfied with the outcome to follow due process in seeking a redress.

The report however, observed that there were old issues like late arrival of election officials at polling units across the country, voters inducement, among others, adding that “the lapses observed were consistent with our experiences in previous elections.”

The group also noted that there was an attempt to disrupt voting and result collation processes by thugs, persons dressed in military/police uniforms and political party agents in some places as well as difficulties in the authentication of some registered voters due to malfunctioning of smart card readers.

The groups said voter turnout was encouraging in most polling units, adding that security was adequate, and in most places, provided the confidence that most voters required to come out to vote.

They however, said the final report, which will be issued later, will expand on other issues observed.