Election observers monitoring the ongoing Ekiti State governorship election have raised concerns over challenges encountered at some polling units, including difficulties faced by elderly voters during accreditation and the conduct of political party agents.
Speaking on News Central about observations from the election, the Programme Lead of the Nigerian Women Trust Fund, Vaneza Gregory, said the turnout of female voters had been encouraging.
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According to her, women account for about 51 per cent of registered voters in the state, a figure that appears to be reflected in voter turnout observed across polling units.
Ms Gregory said the organisation monitors gender-related indicators through its election situation room and analyses data disaggregated by gender from polling units.
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“One of the encouraging observations is that the data provided for gender disaggregation at polling units aligns with the statistics showing that women constitute about 51 per cent of registered voters,” she said.
However, she expressed concern over reports that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was failing to recognise some elderly voters during accreditation.
She urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide alternative means of verifying eligible elderly voters who encounter challenges with the technology to prevent them from being disenfranchised.
“There is a need to create an alternative means to capture eligible elderly voters who are not recognised by BVAS so that they will not be disenfranchised. This is something we want to call on INEC to address to ensure that vulnerable groups are not excluded from the process,” she said.
Also speaking, a Project Manager at The Kukah Centre (TKC), Asabe Ndahi, alleged that some party agents were distributing alcohol around polling units.
She said it was unclear what the intentions behind the action were, but noted that such activities could undermine the integrity of the electoral process.
Ms Ndahi also expressed concern over the movement of large numbers of security personnel around polling areas.
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“We have observed security officers moving around in large numbers, and that could be intimidating to voters. Security personnel are already stationed at polling centres, so I do not think such movements are necessary,” she said.
Meanwhile, the National President of the Victory Advocate of Nigeria, Ajibola Adepoju, commended the conduct of the election so far.
Mr Adepoju, however, noted that INEC’s voter register still appeared to contain the names of deceased persons, which he said should be addressed to improve the credibility of future elections.
Earlier, PREMIUM TIMES reported allegations of vote buying and the distribution of incentives to voters in parts of the state.
