February 27, (THEWILL) – The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) has highlighted operational failures in Saturday’s general elections in Nigeria.
According to the International observers, the election lacked transparency and such operational failures made people doubt the entire election process.
The observations were part of a preliminary statement of the EU EOM, issued on Monday, in Abuja.
While the report observed that fundamental freedoms of assembly and movement were largely respected, it, however, noted that such freedom was impeded by insufficient planning, insecurity and the prevailing Naira and fuel scarcity.
The report, which observed abuse of incumbency by various political office holders, also noted widespread allegations of vote buying.
On the IReV, the report noted that “The introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IReV for the 2023 elections was perceived as an important step to ensure the integrity and credibility of elections.
“However, delayed training of technical personnel, an inadequate mock testing exercise, and a lack of public information on the election technologies diminished expectations and left room for speculation and uncertainty.
“During the early stages of collation, presidential result forms from polling units were not displayed on the IReV, while Senate and House of Representative results were slowly published. Presidential election result forms started to be uploaded after 10pm on election day, raising concerns and reaching only 20 per cent by noon on 26 February. Later the same evening, INEC explained the delay with technical hitches.”
In its pre-election observation, the report stated that “INEC’s operational capacity was hampered by the ongoing fuel and Naira shortage. Insecurity prevented it from accessing some Local Government Areas (LGAs), notably in the South. Attacks on INEC premises, including just days before polling, hindered preparations in affected areas while instilling fear in voters.
“Overall, stakeholders had expressed confidence in INEC’s independence, professionalism, and voter information efforts, but this decreased ahead of elections.
“INEC lacked efficient planning and transparency during critical stages of the electoral process, while on Election Day, trust in INEC was seen to further reduce due to delayed polling processes and information gaps related to much-anticipated access to results on its Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
“In the lead-up to elections, the widely welcomed Electoral Act 2022 introduced measures aimed at building stakeholder trust, however, leaving some important gaps in terms of accountability and INEC’s power to enforce the law.
“Weak points include a lack of INEC empowerment to enforce sanctions for electoral offences and breaches of campaign finance rules.
“Positively, INEC benefited from more timely financing than for previous contests. Other new provisions also aimed to enhance transparency of results.”
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