A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs), called the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, has expressed worry over the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) delay in collating the Osun governorship election result.
The Convener of the Situation Room, Mr Clement Nwankwo in a statement on Sunday said there was need for INEC to change the trend on collation of results and use of electronic method.
Nwankwo also expressed concern that the result collation took place mostly at night.
It would be recalled that INEC had declared the Saturday election inconclusive following the low margin between the leading political party in the poll and the runner’s up.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had scored 254,698 to lead the All Progressive Congress (APC) which polled 254,345.
“On collation of results, Situation Room is concerned that the process of collation is delayed and appears to happen mostly at night.
“This is when the political parties, candidates, observers and other election stakeholders may have depleted away from observation of the process, especially with fears of insecurity.
“This trend needs to change and INEC should consider an improvement and innovation in its processes that will enable the collation of results in as much of daylight as possible and thus reduce night time election activities.”
Nwankwo called on the INEC to open up its e-collation method to independent observers and other stakeholders in the electoral process to eliminate the present suspicion that now clouds the use of the said e-collation system.
He said that this would create an understanding of this aspect of the election process and win support for its use.
“To further increase the credibility of election results, INEC will need to return to its previous practice of immediate publication of polling unit election results .
“As well as publishing all of the comprehensive details of collated results, including the Form EC60E, on its website and to be accessible to all.
“Situation Room also calls on INEC to ensure that its announcement of the introduction of Braille for voting is made operational across the country and that all persons with disabilities are able to vote during elections,” he said
Nwankwo, said the Situation Room deployed observers across the 30 local government areas of the state to monitor the election .
He said that incidents of vote buying reoccurred in the Osun State elections, even though at a reduced and less brazen manner.
He called on INEC to intensify the training of the different cadres of its staff to enhance their understanding of election duties and increase their confidence and ability to respond to election day challenges.
He, however, hailed INEC on early commencement of the voting process, adding that polling units across the state opened early for accreditation and voting.
He commended the people of Osun, the political parties and the security agencies on their good conduct.(NAN)
