International Observers Condemn Violence, Military Involvement in Nigerian Elections via thisdaylive
Going by the evaluations of notable foreign observers, many aspects of the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections and the March 9 governorship and state House of Assembly elections, particularly the involvement of military personnel, were not in conformity with international best practice.
“Polling for the federal election was cancelled in a larger number of polling units across the country; covering nearly 2.8m registered voters. This was four times more than in 2015. While this number did not affect the outcome given the margin of win, this was not a good process. INEC did not provide sufficient information on these cancellations, the specific reasons for them, and the precise local government areas affected.
Also, in their analysis of the Saturday election, the EU Chief Observer, Maria Arena, and the Deputy Chief Observer, Hannah Roberts, who addressed the media at Transcop Hilton Hotel, Abuja Monday, expressed dissatisfaction with systemic failings and electoral security problems, which they said showed the need for serious reform ahead of future elections.
She said, “We echo the view of leading civil society organisations that say that there is an urgent need to restore faith in the electoral process. We encourage a National conversation on electoral reform and strongly believe that it would meaningfully contribute to Nigeria’s democratic development.”
“TIFPI observed the wave of men in Army and other security uniforms who sought to disrupt and indeed disrupted the election process in some state and we opine that there must have been also the use of fake soldiers and infiltration of some of the security formations. Hence the Army authorities should fish out any of its men that may have interfered in the election in any of these states including possible infiltration in their circles,” Wechie stated.
The TIFPI therefore recommends that INEC should immediately set up a high profile group of intellectuals to study the new trend of electoral compromise with a view to fashion out ways of containing the infraction so as to shore up the credibility of the process moving forward.
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