BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the experiences of accredited organizations that observed the November 6 Governorship Election in Anambra State as vital knowledge bank from which it can draw for future elections.
Prof. Kunle Ajayi, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Election and Party Monitoring Committee (EPMC), made the declaration on Thursday in Abuja. It was at the de-briefing session organized by the electoral body for accredited observer groups during the Guber election.
Prof Ajayi said the forum provided the opportunity for the commission to engage observers and draw out their experiences during the election, interact and clarify grey areas of the exercise, and without prejudice to the comprehensive report which INEC still expects from the observers.
INEC accredited a total 78 domestic observer groups and 6 foreign groups out of a total of 135 applications it received for the Anambra poll.
However, at the point of distribution of kits, 9 observer groups did not show up to collect their kits or deploy their members to the field, which could be attributed to the then prevailing security challenges in Anambrarians State.
Director General of The Electoral Institute (TEI), Dr Sa’ad Idris, in his contribution said the work of the observer groups are critical to the entire electoral process, especially as the commission prepares for 2023 general election.
He said “Of course, the Election and Party Monitoring Committee has organized this at The Electoral Institute just to get feedback from observer groups. What were their observations? What were their challenges in the field. And of course we are all aware. We are preparing in the next month or so for the
FCT council elections, thereafter, around June, Ekiti governorship comes up. Then followed by Osun and that will be followed by the mother of them all – 2023. So, it is very critical more than any other time for us to really get feedback from all these stakeholders. And that is what we are doing.”
The national coordinator, Advocate for Peoples Right and Justice, Victor Giwa, who led his observer team to Anambra said the tense environment in which the election held was enough reason to commend INEC. He observed, however, that with time the situation improved substantially giving voters confidence to come out and vote.
He said “Well, of course generally the environment was tense because of the security threat by IPOB, which was called off a day or two before the election. The environment was tensed because of the presence of security personnel, it was militarized, all forms of security agencies were there and people felt a bit of discomfort following from the threats of IPOB and the presence of security personnel and that also affected the turn out of the people towards the election.
He stated that the right go to court is the right of any party and argued that it is the Court that will finally determine whether they have the right.
“The right to go to court is an exclusive right of any party and of course it’s the court that will finally determine whether they have the right. But you know the attitude of the politicians now looking at the background of the Imo state election, some people believe okay, if you can lose through the polls, you can get it through the Court. Maybe the judges or the process may favour you through one way or the other. Well that is the attitude now, not that there is valid ground to go to court”
He noted that the tension reflected in the total number of people that voted and all of that. “Well, at the middle of the exercise, we discovered that the people began to build enough confidence,
“Also, Anambrarians were also calm and resolute to vote and it showed in the result” he stated.
Giwa said from his vantage position during the poll the process was fair to all parties and the reported cases of vote buying were not significant to affect the election outcome.
