A foreign observer group, International Police Chaplain Sustainable Development and Law Enforcement Inc; USA, on Monday declared that the final result declared by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) truly reflects the records of the ballot boxes at various polling units and it is 80% to 90% free and fair.
While presenting the assessment analysis for the off-cycle election to newsmen in Akure, the Mission’s spokesperson and Director of Administration and Organisations at the African Regional Command, Mr. Oscar David charged candidates and political actors to resort to legal channels in case of contestation and disagreement in results, to sustain social peace and avoidance of breakdown of law and order.
He noted that the election was very peaceful, transparency, credible and successful, with minimal incidences and complaints by party agents at polling units and collation centre.
David said: “The IPCSL mission commends the People of Ondo State in their conducts and cooperation with our Time Members across the LGAs, Political Parties and all Stakeholders for enabling environment towards successful election, with show of patriotism and democratic culture, while urging all to continue to work to preserve national peace and stability in order to consolidate democracy and the rule of law, especially in a challenging socio-political context in the country.
“The Mission asserts, without fear of any contradictions, that the final result declared by INEC truly reflect the records of the ballot boxes at Polling Units. IPCSL welcomes the good collaboration between the various International Missions and Domestic Observers. Likewise, we salute the quality of the exchanges and shared experiences in the Mission to Ondo State.”
The group recommended that INEC should continue to interact with Political Parties and the Civil Society Community in order to strengthen and deepen the nation’s Democracy while more intense voters education and mass sensitization by both electoral body and political parties should be strengthen.
“As was made in our Edo Report, our Mission Team recommends further review of the Electoral Laws and Guidelines to tackle few challenges and incidences observed that need adequate legislations.
“Further improvement in security strategies to build more confidence and reduce voters suppression”.
Also, the mission team headed by the Nigerian Director of Political and Democratic Affairs, Hon. Seye Oyetade, said it deployed 50 director official of its organisation to the three senatorial districts of the state, while engaging and collaborating with 20 domestic observer organisations that mobilized and deployed 10 experienced persons each, making a total of 200 Domestic Officials who were sent to the 18 Local Government Areas of the State.
“Our Mission Team observed further improvements on the mobilization and participation of the Security apparatus in the Ondo Election. Unlike the Edo Election wherein the Military were over mobilized and seen in almost every nooks and crany, the Ondo scenario was largely the Police and Civil Defense Corps that were seen at Polling Units and Streets, with Army generally restricted to border areas and flashpoints.
“The Security conducted itself professionally and did not interfere in the processes. IPCSL commends the performance of the Security Agencies in this Election.
“Electoral Officials: INEC appears to be intense in training and re-training of its Staff and Ad-Hoc Workers as the Ondo Election largely witnessed improved performance in the Service of Electoral Officials, with negligible cases of poor handling of Equipment and Voters on the part of the Electoral Officials.
“The BVAS functioned well, except in isolated cases, while accreditation, voting, counting and collation exercises were generally satisfactory and acceptable by the Party Agents on ground, as only in very few Polling Units did we observe rancor or rejection of outcome at point of counting.
“On voting day, our mission randomly visited over 200 polling stations across the 18 Local Government Areas, and in randomly selected Wards. Most Polling Units opened at the official time (8:30 a.m.); some were, however, late in opening owing to transportation logistics as they informed us.”
He noted that 17 political parties fielded candidates for the election, however, only two were highly visible and did remarkable mobilizations of party agents across the Polling Units of the 18 LGAs of the State.
“The 2 Parties were the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Both Parties performed above average in mobilization of Agents and Electorates, while other were almost absent in on voting day.
“In terms of overall voters mobilization, the attendance and turnout in Polling Units varied significantly across LGAs; some witnessed massive voters turnout, while some experienced notable voters apathy, which was attributed to low morale resulting from economic hardship in the country generally, coupled with dwindling interest of citizen in political activities.”
He noted that some isolated incidences of vote trading were observed in Idanre LGA.
“In Idanre a violent incidence was recorded wherein a young man who was alleged to have snatched two ballot boxes was attacked and stabbed with broken bottles to point of endangering of life. A man was caught with some large volume of money on Election Day in the Akoko area, but claimed he was a cocoa trader.”
He added that, in Unit 4, Ore Ward 1, in Odigbo LGA, there was no voter seen up till 11:00 am despite the presence and readiness of INEC officials and availability of electoral materials, indicating very poor turnout and high voters apathy.
