By Okey Maduforo Awka.
Against fears that the six local government areas marked as security red light may face challenges of gunmen during last Saturday local government election in Anambra, electorates in the area casted their votes in their respective polling units.
Recall that both the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission ANSIEC and the state police command had announced that the electoral wards in those areas would be transferred to the local government headquarters due anticipated security challenges.
However those anticipations were laid to rest as voters actually performed their civic responsibilities without any sound of gun shots or attack on electoral officers and agents of political parties.
This is coming as over 100 accredited election observers commended the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission ANSIEC for a peaceful and credible process.
Areas such as Orumba North and South Council areas , Ihiala, Ogbaru, Idemili South and Nnewi South Council areas witnessed a peaceful process though the turn out of voters was low.
However at the end of the election the All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA swept the twenty one local government areas as well as the 326 electoral wards in the state .
Also political parties such as the People’s Democratic Party PDP, the Labour Party, Accord party and Zenith Labor Party ZLP took part in the election while the All Progressives Congress APC did not participate as they had earlier filed suit at the law Court challenging the process.
According to the Coordinator of the Observers Prince Chris Azor and the Secretary Dr Kene Chukwu Makeudo while addressing repoters in a post election briefing;
“The election commenced with a slow start as a result of personnel and logistical challenges which led to late commencement of polls in some polling units across the State”
“Even as we observed late commencement of polls, we heartily commend ANSIEC preparedness and enthusiasm to conduct the election as scheduled”
Voter turnout was low compared to the number of registered voters in the register.
“Our observers reported that ANSIEC lived up to its promise of giving priority to Persons With Disabilities, pregnant women and the elderly, to cast their ballot.
We didn’t however, witness the use of braille by the visually impaired”
“Our observers didn’t report any form of conflict or violence in the areas observed. Reports we got indicated that the exercise was generally peaceful”
“We didn’t observe any form of vote buying, rigging or sundry malpractices at the polling areas. However, there were some people who ordinarily had no official role within the polling units, but were loitering around the polling area”
Our observers met security personnel from Policemen/women, NSCDC and Road Safety Officials at the polling units.”
“At a Church in Amawbia, we observed the presence of Red Cross Officers, who explained to us that they were going round in case of any health emergency.”
“The election organized and conducted by the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) was free, fair, credible and peaceful. The exercise witnessed initial delay in commencement due to logistics and personnel challenges. However, polls eventually progressed smoothly without any recorded conflict, violence or malpractices”
“We sincerely, commend the election management body, ANSIEC, security agencies, sundry stakeholders and most importantly, the citizens of Anambra State who came out to exercise their franchise after over ten (10) years of waiting for democracy at the local government level’
We also, sincerely appreciate our observers team and partners, the media and political parties for their peaceful conduct and patriotism””
“We recommend better strategic logistics management to forestall delays in commencement of polls.”
“Due to the prolonged absence of democracy at the local government, we recommend governance reforms, integrity and capacity building in local government administration”
“In the course of our work, we observed inadequate provision of voting cubicles as required by secret ballot principle. This gap needs to be filled as best practice”
“In future elections there’s need to commence early voter education and citizen sensitization for improved voter turnout”
We observed high number of voters in some polling units. We therefore, recommend splitting of polling units to contain fewer number of voters not exceeding five (5) hundred” he noted.
