By Osahon Osahon
The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has scored the recently concluded Edo State governorship election where Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared winner high compare to previous elections in the country.
It, however, lamented voter apathy especially among youths, scoring voters turnout during the election as low.
It also lamented the non adherence to the COVID-19 protocols for the conduct of the election.
This was contained in a preliminary report of the 12-man supervisory observer group led by the1st vice President of the NBA, Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins that monitored the Saturday September 19 governorship election in Edo.
A copy of the preliminary report was made available to NIGER DELTA TODAY (NDT) Online by NBA’s Publicity Secretary, Dr. Rapulu Nduka.
Recall that NBA President, Olumide Akpata had appointed Aikpokpo-Martins to head 12-man supervisory observer group to Edo State.
Obaseki of the PDP was declared winner of the election on Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He polled 307,955 votes to defeat his closest rival and candidate of APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who garnered 223,619 votes.
According to the report, NBA described the election as generally peace and also commended INEC for improvement among its officials.
It read, “Our group is of the opinion that provision of materials was adequate in the circumstances of the elections conducted in the different units. We observed that materials were available in over 80% of the Polling units as and when due.
“The turnout was low. However, it is important to state that the people who turned out were enthusiastic about the process and there was a considerable level of interest in most of the Polling units visited in the state. There was obvious voter apathy.
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“The older voters from age 40 and above came out to vote, while the youths did not come out. The female citizens represented about 70% of voters during the election. Agents of political parties – The agents of most political parties were generally satisfied with the election. We spoke to several agents and they expressed satisfaction.
“Card Readers – In the units covered by the group, the card readers malfunctioned minimally. The device worked well in most polling units and we observed that there is substantial improvement in the deployment of card readers. In one or two units where the card readers broke down, the officials informed us that they had requested for back up card reader.”
The report further stated that the NBA team observed that there was no intimidation of voters by security operatives and as well as interference from INEC officials during the conduct of the governorship election.
“There was more than adequate security in the state. The polling units had heavy presence of security and we observed that the security personnel were not in the faces of the voters. They did not intimidate the voters.
“The only snag we observed is the fact that the Policemen were either not professionally trained about election protocol or they were not informed that observers are part of the election process. We recommend that INEC should improve in this area of enlightenment engagement with security forces.
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“Vote Buying/Inducement – The group only heard about vote buying and distribution of money to induce voters, however we did not see or encounter any of such incident on the day of election.
“Interference by Election officials – The election officials did not interfere with the voters in almost 100% of the units we covered.
“The 2020 Edo state governorship election was generally peaceful. We have not been able to confirm any death in any polling unit during the election. Our observation ended at about 4pm on the day of election and we have deliberately excluded the final process of result collation since we did not cover that aspect.
“In a subsequent report, we shall elaborate on additional recommendations for INEC during future elections”, the reported further added.
