By Ebi Kesiena
As Nigerians anxiously await the outcome of the tightly contested presidential elections, the head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Electoral Observation Mission to Nigeria, Ernest Bai Koroma says the voting process was marred by irregularities and not satisfactory
Koroma who listed out some of the issues observed by some of the observers in the field noted that the late start of voting beyond the 08:30 am opening time was a major deterrent of the process.
“The late start of voting beyond the 8:30 a.m. opening time due to the late arrival of polling officials, voting materials, and in some cases, the delivery of wrong materials at polling stations across the country,” he said
As a result, people continued casting ballots on Sunday even though the general election, which included choosing a new national legislature, should have ended on Saturday.
The former president of Sierra Leone added, however, that major political parties did have representatives at most polling stations.
“The All People’s Congress, the All Progressive Party, the APC, the People’s Democratic Party, the Labour Party, and the New Nigeria People’s Party were present in most of the polling stations as a visible absence of most of the other party agents in the rest of these stations,” he said.
The ECOWAS Electoral Observation Mission further said most polling officials and ad-hoc staff demonstrated inadequate knowledge of their duties, especially with the voting materials.
While saying that voter turnout was generally low in most of the polling stations visited, the ECOWAS Electoral Observation also said there were cases of BVAS failure to accredit voters due mainly to technical issues relating to login.
The Mission, which acknowledged that the processes on election day unfolded in a generally peaceful environment, however, said that incidents of violence, killings and disruption were recorded in several states.
Concerns have been raised by some of the presidential candidates, through their supporters and parties, about irregularities during the vote.
But while noting issues reported by observers in the field, Koroma urged candidates to respect the outcome of the polls.
It could days before Nigeria’s election commission declares a winner.
