Linus Aleke, Abuja
The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), to Nigeria, has faulted the last Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, noting that the process was not transparent.

The Chief Observer, Mr. Barry Andrew said the elections held on schedule, but lack of transparency and operational failures reduced trust in the process and challenged the right to vote.

Mr. Andrew said this while presenting the preliminary report of the observation mission, in a press conference in Abuja.

He said that INEC’s lack of efficient planning in critical stages and effective public communication reduced trust in the process, including on election day.

The Chief Observer noted that part of the findings of its observers was that election day was marked by late deployment and opening while polling procedure were not always followed.

INEC to reconvene by 8pm

He said: “Polling staff struggled to complete result forms, which were not posted publicly in most polling units observed. The introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) were perceived as an important step to ensure the integrity and credibility of the elections. However, uploading the results using BVAS did not work as expected and presidential election result forms started to appear on the portal very late on election day, raising concerns. The general elections offered voters a real choice of candidates in a highly competitive campaign. However, political parties denounced unequal campaign conditions due to interference and increase in violent incidents with a potential to impact the elections and suppress voter participation. Civil society played an increasingly important role in mobilizing youths, supporting voter education and, with almost 150,000 observers, holding electoral institutions accountable”.

While noting that the tabulation exercise is still ongoing, the Chief Observer concluded that EU EOM will follow the processes until the end.