Political parties and their candidates participating in the Anambra state governorship election have decried hitches in the electioneering process, occasioned largely by widespread failure of the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) deployed for biometric accreditation of voters.
Daily Trust reports that the election held yesterday across the state was characterized by logistical and technical hiccups, thus, compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the voting time from 2:30pm to 4pm.
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Eighteen political parties have fielded candidates for the election, while the total number of registered voters is 2, 525,471.
Tenure of the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, will elapse in March, 2022.
Also, contrary to heightened fear over possible stalling of the election by rampaging members of the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), the election was conducted in a largely peaceful atmosphere but for pockets of violence reported in some polling units.
Daily Trust on Sunday reports that while accreditation and voting commenced early on Saturday in some polling units, the reverse was the case in other polling units due to logistics issues.
Failure of the BVAS devices to function in many polling units was also identified as a big glitch as voters were seeing groaning.
The machines failed in some polling units in Aguata Local Government Area including Amesi, Achina, Akpo, Umuchu and others.
In Orumba South Local Government Area, Umunze wards 1-3, it was reported that the machine failed. The same thing happened in five polling units in Ezira, six polling units in Ogbunka and five polling units in Agbudu.
Daily Trust on Sunday reports that the accreditation machine also failed to recognize the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, for close to an hour.
Ngige who spoke with newsmen asked INEC to extend the 2.30 pm voting deadline or adopt the doctrine of necessity and allow for manual accreditation.
Political parties react
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it was not comfortable with the way the election was going and cautioned INEC against conducting inconclusive election in the state.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who spoke in a telephone chat said, “apart from the human error, we do not believe that INEC did a substantial test run of the accreditation machine that it deployed”.
The PDP spokesman also lamented voter apathy in the election which he attributed to the security situation in the state.
“We all know the import of inconclusive elections and our opinion in the PDP, despite the hitches, the election should not be pushed beyond a reasonable period of time.”
Similarly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) said hitches are bound to occur in elections but asked INEC to ensure that every vote count despite the challenges.
The APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, said, “INEC should do everything possible to ensure the peoples’ votes count. That is most important thing.
“They (INEC) should use their own discretion and follow the constitution to ensure they do the right thing. Those hitches are there but they are mostly computer related issues. But INEC as a body should do the right thing.”
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr. Victor Ike Oye, also expressed worry over the massive failure of the BVAS device.
“For me the BVAS was better than the SCRs. But the malfunctioning is an issue. If not for the malfunctioning, it was not a bad idea. Many people could not vote because it was slow, due to network. In my polling unit, it malfunctioned for one hour and later picked up and we continue till it (voting) ended,” Oye said.
PHOTO:NAN
Machine failure, vote buying dent on election – Observer groups
In a statement released on Saturday, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) said “repeated occurrence” of BIVAS device failure had threatened to “to mar the quality of the election outcome”.
“In several reported cases, frustrated voters were forced to return home without casting their votes. The resort to manual voting will likely generate uncertainties about the validity of votes cast. This will likely also open up the election to petitions and questions regarding its legitimacy,” the statement reads in part.
The observer group attributed the glitches in INEC’s preparedness to wider security atmosphere leading up to the polls.
In his presentation Saturday afternoon the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, had stated that some trained ad-hoc staff dropped off hours to the election over fear of violence.
CDD however pointed out that despite the threats and concerns over the heavy deployment of security agents, very few incidents of intimidation and violence had been reported.
Similarly, Yiaga Africa, in its statement jointly signed by Samson Itodo and Ezenwa Nwagwu; said, “Yiaga Africa received reports of the BVAS failure to authenticate voters’ fingerprints and photos even where voter details were confirmed on the voter register.”
The observer group added, “Based on verified reports from Yiaga Africa observers, 19% of polling units failed to open by 12noon. In other words, INEC officials didn’t deploy to those polling units. These incidents are mostly concentrated in Anambra South Senatorial District (23.5%), Anambra Central (17%), and Anambra North Senatorial districts (13%).”
We’ve resolve BVAS glitches, result collation begins Sunday – INEC
The INEC last night said it has largely resolved the earlier challenges on the malfunctioning of the BVAS devices across many polling units as reported earlier.
Dr Orji said also collation of results of the election would commence this morning (Sunday) at the collation centre, INEC State Headquarters Awka.
Daily Trust reports that the commission had earlier Saturday extended the accreditation and voting periods of the election from 2.30pm to 4.00pm local time over the BVAS challenge.
However, during the Saturday’s night briefing the Anambra REC, Dr. Orji, said the election has progressed generally well despite the initial challenges.
He expressed delight that appreciable number of citizens of Anambra State turned out to exercise their civic duty of choosing their next governor, notwithstanding initial security concerns.
He said, “I am happy to report that the technical glitches we experienced with our new BVAS were largely solved. We thank the voters and candidates for patiently waiting for the problem with the devices to be resolved.
“To be sure, these may not have been resolved perfectly everywhere, but the reports we got from our field officers and independent observers convince us that most voters were able to vote with the BVAS, following the extension of voting period to 4.00pm and our regulation that any voter on the queue at that time must be allowed to vote.
“As I said in my earlier briefing, any PU where there was a consistent malfunction of the BVAS, and therefore the voters in the Unit were unable to vote, the election will be continued tomorrow (Sunday).”
Orji, however, said the commission was yet to receive reports of any location where the sustained malfunction of the BVAS led to no election at all.
Aggrieved policemen stage protect
Aggrieved policemen had staged a protest at the INEC collation centre in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State on yesterday.
The officers deployed for the election had lamented over non-payment of their feeding allowance.
The aggrieved policemen, said to be operatives of the Ondo Police Command, are currently on election duty in Anambra.
They lamented that their N5,000 allowance was not released.
According to an electoral observer, one of the aggrieved officers disconnected the generator meant to power the collation center, an action that could have disrupted the exercise. He however, said the generator was later returned to its position.
Earlier on Saturday, a policeman on election duty had complained of hunger, saying there was no provision for feeding.
When a team of journalists, including our correspondent, met with Frank Mba, the Force Spokesman, he said the Inspector-General of Police, had ordered a compilation of the list of officers who were yet to be paid.
According to Mba, the IGP blamed the situation on “clerical mistake.”
He said while more than 30,000 officers were deployed for the election, more than 29,000 of them had been paid.
By: Abbas Jimoh, Titus Eleweke, Jude Aguguo Owuamanam (Awka), Saawua Terzungwe (Abuja),
