July 16: YIAGA Africa Seeks Adequate Information For Voters On Relocated Polling Units

 

Sodiq Yusuf

AHEAD of tomorrow’s governorship election in the State of Osun, an election monitoring group, YIAGA Africa has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to provide adequate information for voters whose voting areas have been moved.

The civil society organisation also called for the arrest and state action on would-be vote buyers and sellers in the much anticipated election.

It expressed worry that if vote buying is not curbed, it will result to imbalance and voter apathy, as well as negligence of the electoral process.

Addressing a press conference in Osogbo  yesterday, the group said the imbalance has nosedived into the allocation of voters per unit, calling on the electoral body to provide massive education and materials for the people of Osun.

The group also charged INEC to publish the names of disaggregated registered voters and make it available to voters who are not eligible to exercise their franchise on Saturday.

It said: “Yiaga Africa commends INEC’s effort to relocate polling units from palaces, private residents and other controversial locations. However, there are two major issues of concern for stakeholders. First, the inadequate information in the public about the relocation of some voters’ new polling units’ can potentially disenfranchise voters who may be unable to locate their polling unit on election day. 

“This was recently observed in the Ekiti election where some voters’ names were not found on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) despite their Permanent Voters Card being for that polling unit.

“Secondly, the imbalance in the distribution of voters to polling units. Despite the creation of additional polling, there are oversized units with registered voters above the threshold of 750 registered voters per polling unit. Osun State has 246 polling units with over 1000 registered voters, eight (8) polling units with over 2000 registered voters and one (1) polling unit with over 3,000 registered voters. 

“Oversized polling units may pose a logistical challenge on election day. It is imperative for INEC to revisit the expansion of voter access to polling units in order to achieve the desired outcome of the creation of new polling units.”

The group further stressed that, “Vote buying in no small way reduces the quality of leadership and, by extension, affects citizens’ participation in the electoral process due to little or no dividends of democracy.

“Recent experience in Ekiti state reveals that Nigerian Police have continuously shied away from arresting political party agents that induce voters on election day. It is of immense concern that the leading agency for election security has made no arrests despite the incidence of rampant vote-buying and selling on election day. 

“This seeming laxity by the Nigerian Police may embolden party agents to brazenly continue to violate electoral laws as regards voter inducement, especially on election day.”

Yiaga Africa urged INEC to ensure more consistent and harmonious coordination within the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to ensure proper security of polling officials deployed in the Registration Area Centers ahead of the election day deployment.

It also charged INEC to ensure proper coordination with the security agencies to forestall incidences of violence and ensure the safety of voters and poll officials on election day.