By Cajetan Mmuta
Leadership of an election observer body, Yiaga Africa has expressed deep concerns over what it called poor deployment of security personnel at various centres of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in parts of Anambra State.
It also decried the abysmal low participation of political parties in the exercise and restriction of its Watching The Voters (WTV) accredited officials from observing the process, particularly in Orumba South Local Government Area of the State.
The Yiaga Africa in a statement issued by its Director of Programs, Cynthia Mbamalu, on Saturday frowned at the absence of security officials in over half of the CVR centres visited despite Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) guideline for deployment of security personnel across registration centres.
It also regretted that political parties were more interested in political permutations towards the 2023 general elections than playing the important role of mobilising citizens to actively engage the CVR.
The group said, “The reports of absence of security personnel at some of the registration centres is worrying given the different security concerns across most states of the federation and the previous attacks to some INEC offices and properties in some Local Government Areas.
According to the body, “A major finding from the observation in the first two weeks of the process is the poor deployment of security personnel at the registration centres. As reported by the WTV observers, while an average of 4 INEC registration officials was seen across most of the registration centres in the first and second week, no security officials were seen in over half of the CVR centres visited.”
“For instance, there were no security officials in 26 of the 44 registration centres, in 11 of the 23 centres in Rivers State and in Anambra state in 7 of the centres visited. The INEC guideline on the CVR exercise had provided for the need for deployment of security personnel across the registration centres.
“More so, the INEC’s guidelines stipulate that at least two security officials should be stationed at each registration centre at all times during the registration hours. This is crucial in order to forestall any plan to disrupt the process.
“Yiaga Africa observed the abysmally low participation of political parties in the CVR process indicated in the absence of political party-specific citizens mobilisation activities to increase participation and the absence of political party agents in the registration centres.”
While commending INEC for recording reasonable progress, including consistent provision of updated data on the online pre-registration exercise, Yiaga Africa called for improved collaboration of security agencies with the electoral umpire to ensure adequate deployment of personnel to the centres.
Plateau attacks: UNIJOS suspends academic activities
It further urged Nigerians to take advantage of the exercise to register to vote and ensure their data were properly captured in the voter register for their Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to be produced ahead of the next elections.
“As the exercise continues, we call on INEC to ensure proper oversight over the process. Proper oversight will reasonably address the issue like the clarity on procedure for the registration of citizens who have commenced the process online and prospective voters who are accessing the process for the first time.
“Security agencies should collaborate better with INEC to ensure adequate deployment of their personnel to the voter registration centres. Political Parties should adopt the election cycle approach and ensure the deployment of their agents to oversee the registration process,” they stated.
