Elections held on November 11 to nominate governors of three Nigerian states of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi had been marred by stories of main irregularities, together with extreme voting, in line with a number of native media.
These claims come regardless of the supply of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) deployed for the polls by the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC).
BVAS is a two-factor biometric authentication system to confirm the id of registered voters earlier than they vote on the polling station.
Allegations of overvoting had been extra pronounced in Kogi State, with two shedding candidates within the governorship race alleging that ends in some native authorities areas (LGAs) confirmed that the variety of votes solid exceeded the variety of folks accredited to vote. Flash stories.
Regardless of complaints, INEC on Sunday night time declared the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Usman Ododo, winner of the Kogi polls, in line with Tv Channels.
The 2 finalist candidates, Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Occasion (SDP) and Dino Melaye of the Folks’s Democratic Occasion (PDP), criticized the CENI for ignoring complaints about what they see as blatant irregularities which have considerably affected important the results of the vote. election.
Melaye, who got here third within the polls, in line with the CENI outcomes, claimed that in some LGAs, the electoral company deserted biometric gadgets and resorted to guide accreditation of voters, thus opening the door to fraud. He additionally cited irregularities, together with vote shopping for, alleging collusion by CENI officers.
Ajaka, on his half, known as on the INEC to annul the ends in areas of Kogi the place there was extreme voting, simply because the electoral adjudicator did in some polling models in Bayelsa. He mentioned within the central senatorial district of the state, there was large fraud in 5 LGAs. In one of many LGAs, Ajaka mentioned 130,000 folks had been mentioned to have voted whereas BVAS data confirmed solely 30,000 had been accredited, Information Flash stories in one other report.
Earlier than the elections, the CENI introduced that 1.8 million residents had collected their voter playing cards to vote. He additionally mentioned it would deploy 11,000 BVAS machines for surveys.
The BVAS was the topic of controversy in earlier elections in Nigeria. Through the common election earlier this 12 months, delays in transmitting outcomes from these machines sparked requires them to be reconfigured, however the federal authorities in the end mentioned it was a sport changer within the electoral course of.
Article subjects
Africa | biometric authentication | biometrics | Nigeria | voter accreditation
