By Iduozee Paul Benin
Country Head of the Inter-Continental Initiative, Prince Stafford Bisong has queried the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the malfunction of card- readers, late arrival of materials on the September 19 just held governorship election.
He urged INEC to first test run the card-readers before using it on election day starting from the Ondo governorship poll, stressing that there is need for the commission to enhance its integrity process
He stated that the Edo governorship election was marred with vote buying.
Bisong blamed INEC for breaching the Electoral Act by refusing to paste the voters register on various polling units before the commencement of the election.
“We are here to talk about what have observed in the Edo State 2020 elections. There is need to focus on the integrity process of our elections in subsequent polls.
“We observed that there was late arrival of materials in various polling units. Accreditation and voting didn’t come on time,” he added.
He who made the observations in a press conference organized by accredited observer groups on Edo 2020 election in Benin City, said INEC should have pasted the voters register on various polling units five days before the poll to enable voters check their names.
He further complained that Covid-19 pandemic protocol was not observes and disclosed that social distance and the wearing of face masks were not observe by the electorates.
Prince expressed disappointed over the multiple voting that characterized the election in some local governments in the state and advised INEC to improve on the card-readers in the next election.
Also commenting, Funsho Tunde from Organization of Justice for Equity Sustenance, said there was a lot electoral malpractice such as vote buying, malfunction of card- readers and many others, which are part of the violence that occurred in the Saturday 19, Edo governorship election.