The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room) has expressed worry over voter apathy trend in urban centres during elections.
The Situation Room is a coalition of over 70 civil society organisations that monitor electoral process and elections across the country.
The Convener, Situation Room, Ms Ene Obi, said this at a news conference on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections held on Saturday.
Obi said that voter apathy during elections as observed in the FCT elections revealed that elites were no longer interested in who rules them.
She said that the election was generally peaceful across the six area councils, as voters exercised their civic duty without conflict in the polling units visited by Situation Room field observers.
She, however, said that elites did not show interest in voting as urban centres witnessed low voters turnout unlike the rural areas.
“Many of the residents in the FCT were not aware of the elections until about two weeks to the elections.
” On Election Day, particularly in the urban areas, voter turnout was very low. This may have been caused by several factors including the conflicting statements on restriction of movement and a lack of interest by the elite.
“While large crowds were observed in some voting locations, there were other places where none of the registered voters showed up. Generally, voter turnout was very low. ”
Obi said that observation of the logistics and commencement of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed that polls commenced at about 10:00am in the voting locations observed, as a result of the late arrival of officials and materials.
She said that, however, polls commenced on time in several polling units in Bwari and Gwagwalada Area Councils.
Obi said that the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in spite of INEC’s repeated assurances of its readiness to conduct the elections witnessed widespread malfunction.
She added that this led to agitation among voters in some locations.
She said that in some instances where challenges with the BVAS were escalated, the response time was long.
Obi said that Situation Room noted that INEC ad-hoc officials in some instances gave priority to Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), elderly persons and pregnant women in some of the polling units observed.
She, however, said that most voting booths were not accessible to some categories of PWDs.
She said that reports from other partner organisations like The Albino Foundation and Inclusive Elections Observation noted that a good number of Polling Officers were not aware of some of the assistive devices such as Braille.
She said that Situation Room observers noted that voting aids for voters with disabilities were not available in 85 per cent of the polling units observed and where they were, the items were not usable.
Obi said that the group observed that security agents were present at most of the polling units visited, with at least three in each voting location and were professional in their conduct.
Nevertheless, Obi said that the security agents failed to halt voters’ inducement or make arrest of perpetrators.
She said that the incidence of vote buying appeared to have become a staple in the country’s elections, with the FCT election not being an exception as votes were sold for N100 to N2000.
She said that Situation Room observed that although collation of results started several hours after the conclusion of the close of polls, the process was concluded around noon on Sunday, Feb.13.
According to Obi, the FCT election like several major and bye-elections to be conducted by INEC in 2022, sets the tone for the 2023 general elections and a litmus test for INEC’s own preparedness to conduct the general elections.
She said that Situation Room therefore called on the commission to work towards improving its logistics arrangements, ensure effective configuration of accreditation devices and early commencement of polls.
She said that late deployment of materials within the FCT where INEC headquarters was situated was quite perplexing.
She said that Situation Room called on INEC to carry out extensive voter education to raise awareness on the new polling units created in its Expansion of Access to Polling Units exercise in 2021.
Obi said that INEC needed to also review the accessibility of polling units with registered voters who are PWDs, and also ensure the deployment of assistive materials to these locations.
She said that the group called on political parties to also actively engage in voter mobilisation to address the trend of diminishing voter turnout.
She said that parties and candidates were the beneficiaries of the votes and were not doing enough to canvass for these votes.
Situation Room, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Electoral Bill.
“This will help to raise the standard of elections in Nigeria, improve electoral environment and prevent further excuses or deficiency in the electoral and voting processes,” she said.