The Election Observation Mission of the European Union to Nigeria has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of lacking in transparency in the conduct of the presidential election process at the preliminary stage.
Barry Andrews, the EU Election Observation Mission Chief Observer, made this known in Abuja on Monday as he was presenting an initial report to journalists.
He stated that there was absence of efficient planning in the course of the critical stages of the polls and zero transparency.
Andrews pointed out that late deployment of materials for the election and non-compliance with polling procedures characterized the process.
The Chief Observer further added that results weren’t transmitted to the server in many polling units while the staff of the commission struggled to fill in result sheets.
According to Andrews: “Overall, stakeholders expressed confidence in INEC’s independence and professionalism and voter information efforts earlier in the process, however there was lack of efficient planning during critical stages as well as a lack of transparency.”
“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 Results Viewing Portal (IReV) were perceived as an important step to ensure the integrity and credibility of the elections.
“However, uploading of the results using the BVAS did not work as expected and presidential election result forms started to appear on the portal very late on election day, raising concerns.”
Speaking further, he noted that the young population enthusiastically trooped out in a highly anticipated polls.
The Mission also said that the Naira scarcity affected the electoral body.
