EU, ECOWAS thrash Nigeria’s election, want riggers prosecuted
Sopuruchi Onwuka
The European Union has asked the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to arrest and prosecute all people involved in electoral violence in the ongoing 2023 elections, saying that the conduct and outcomes of the election so far fall below international and local standards.
The European Union Election Observation Mission in Nigeria declared in an interim statement after the Saturday elections into federal political leadership positions that the overall conduct of the Saturday elections and the outcomes fall far below acceptable local and international standards.
The EU mission demanded that the relevant sections of the Nigerian law should apply to bring people involved in electoral offences and criminal activities to account.
“Impunity discourages people from taking part in the election process and this not up to the standards that EU wants to see in these election,” the bloc’s representative stated in a media briefing on the ongoing crises rocking announcement of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He urged political parties to condemn the high level of intimidation that is going on to suppress voter turnout in the elections, “and of course that is a very serious issue and short of the standards Nigeria set for itself.
“There should be a clear pathway to prosecution of those who carried out these acts, and there should be clear provisions in the Electoral Act on electoral offences and intimidation of this sort.
The EU declared cases of breaches that were supported with clear abuses of power by existing political office holders.
The EU stated that there have been abuses of incumbency where opposition parties were stopped from holding rallies and their supporters attacked.
We have taken note of these issues and they fall well below international standards and also the standards that Nigeria has set for itself,” the EU declared.
On the conduct of the election by the INEC, the EU observed that the process was marred by insufficient planning and insecurity, saying that abuse of incumbency and widespread allegations of vote buying distorted the playing field.
“INEC lacked efficient planning and transparency during the critical stages of the electoral process, while on election day trust in INEC was seen to further reduce due to delayed polling process and information gaps relating to much anticipated access to results on its results viewing portal (IReV).”
The EU stated that all the investments and commendable funding of INEC ahead of the election yielded no desired results as poor handling of technology introduced with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV “perceived as an important step to ensure the integrity and credibility of the elections” left room to speculations and uncertainty.
The bloc added that slow process of results collation and failure to upload presidential results to the IReV directly from polling units raised serious credibility concerns.
Meanwhile, Head of Mission of ECOWAS Election Observation Mission in Nigeria and former President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma, declared that the election was marred by late arrival of electoral officials, polling material and in some cases wrong delivery of materials.
The ECOWAS mission reported that it documented a number of irregularities, including electoral violence, postponements of elections, inadequate protection of voter secrecy and the delivery of the wrong voting materials to some stations.
“Incidents of violence, killings and destructions were recorded in several states. There are postponement of elections in some polling units in Lagos, Imo Bayelsa, Rivers and Kano states due to electoral violence or logistical challenges.”
The ECOWAS body pointed at “professional conduct of polling officials as well as ad hoc staff who demonstrated inadequate knowledge of their duties, especially with voting materials,” adding that the set up of the polling units did not protect the secrecy of the voting process.
