Situation Room, a coalition of frontline Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the outcome of the the just concluded Ekiti state governorship election won by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji.
But it also frowned at some of the infractions that nearly marred the peaceful conduct of the election which it said included vote buying, malfunctioning of the Bi-modal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS) and overcrowded polling units.
Situation Room gave its interim report on Sunday at a press conference in Ado Ekiti, stating that preliminary statement indicated that the election was smooth and devoid of acts of violence.
The spokesman and Co-convener, Situation Room, James Ugochukwu, however, noted that the election characterised by vote buying a key component at the various Polling Units (PU).
Said he: “Situation Room notes that INEC’s strategy of voters’ redistribution failed to address the problem of over concentration of voters in some polling units. A glaring example was the situation at Surajudeen School, Ado Dallimore (Ward 9), Ado Ekiti LGA, which had about five thousand registered voters shared between just two polling units”.
Speaking further, he said: “Some of the voters complained that their request for transfer of registration to their preferred polling units was not approved before this exercise”.
“Several of the polling units were sited in private residences and compounds in Ekiti state contrary to claims by INEC that the Commission had moved polling units to public spaces during its “Expansion of Voters Access to Polling Units Exercise” in 2021. We hope that INEC will properly address this lingering issue going into the 2023 General Elections”.
Situation Room insists that reports received from field observers and reports from its observers and network partners indicated that there were marked improvement in logistics and commencement of polls.
“Situation Room notes an appreciable improvement in INEC’s logistics and election administration, especially with the early arrival of election officials and materials at the polling units, leading to early opening of polls. This is a welcome improvement from what was observed in both the Anambra State Governorship Election 2021 and FCT Area Councils Elections 2022” .
