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The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has called on observer groups accredited for Ekiti and Osun governorship elections who are yet to submit their reports to do so.
The Director, Election and Party Monitoring Department, in INEC, Alhaji Aminu Idris made the call in Abuja at a post-election debriefing workshop of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections with accredited observer groups.
Alhaji Aminu said the Commission needed to study and review the reports for improvements before the general election next year.
He said that observers are critical stakeholders in the electoral process and their reports are considered as valuable tools to assess the performance of the electoral body.
The National Commissioner and Chairman Election and Party Monitoring, Mr Sam Olumekun urged the observer groups to acquaint themselves with the provisions of Electoral Act 2022 as amended.
Mr Olumekun, represented by the Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Victor Aluko raised concerns about activities of some observation groups.
He said that out of the eighty eight accredited groups only twenty five reports have been received for Ekiti and twenty seven groups for have submitted for Osun elections.
Mr Olumekun also noted that response rate has been low on the synopsis form for election observation which was supposed to have been received by the Commission within seventy two hours after announcement of results of election.
The Deputy Director, Election Monitoring and Observation, Nkechi Abuh, who presented the summary report submitted by some observer groups for the two governorship election explained that some of the key challenges and it’s recommendations.
Ms Nkechi Abuh explained that the reports submitted identified late activation of registration area centers and recommended that the commission should improve on it’s logistics.
Another concern according to her was that the secrecy of voting was compromised in many polling units as party agents were seen very close to voting cubicles while they recommended that INEC should redesign the polling unit set up to ensure secrecy of polling unit and train polling unit election personnel appropriately.
The workshop later went into technical sessions to give different observation groups the opportunity to share their field experiences for a better conduct of credible elections next year.(FRCN)
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