Presidential/NASS elections: Polling takes off in Lagos, as INEC fails to rectify omission of LP from NASS ballot

Polling commenced seamlessly in parts of Lagos, Saturday, February 25 in the Presidential and National Assembly elections with relative ease as registered voters trooped out en mass to cast their votes as early as possible.

However, despite the protests registered by the Labour Party (LP) over its omission from the ballot in the House of Representatives and senatorial elections in the state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to rectify the flaw, leaving more controversy for the exercise.

The LP is on the Presidential ballot.

Checks by the Oracle Today newspaper on the ballot papers issued to registered voters showed that the LP logo was missing from the lot in the House of Representatives and senatorial list of parties, with officials also failing to educate the electorate on the error.

Meanwhile, voters trooped out as early as 7.30 am in GRA district of Ikeja to begin the exercise. While some polling units had hundreds of registered voters to attend to, others had barely 20 persons to process.

Similarly, while some emptied as early as 10.30am after processing registered voters, some were still busy as at 11am. But, most of the polling units had literally closed for the day by 12 noon, with some shutting down as at 1.30am. Official close of voting had been fixed for 2.30 pm by INEC, except for polling units which encountered difficult logistics.

Voting in the Ikeja GRA district of Lagos, in all was hitch-free, as there were relatively no complaints over the BVAS system. Each polling unit also recorded an appreciable number of police presence.

Reports on conduct of the polls in other parts of Lagos are still awaited as at press time.

However, voters complained about the over-stretching of polling units in the GRA zone, as most units were collapsed into two; Police Barracks 1 and Police Barracks 11 Registered Area (Ward) leaving a trail of confusion as people walked for kilometers to locate their polling units.

“I voted here (Police Barracks 11 beside Pension Gate during the last election, but can you imagine where I located my name; down Oba Akinjobi street, close to Sasegbon street. And all these poling units are all still under the same police barracks,” lamented a voter, who declined identification.

Recall that the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos had asked INEC to postpone and reschedule the Saturday, February 25 elections in the state over the omission of the party in the House of Representatives and senatorial elections from the ballot.

The omission which the Labour Party described as ‘a frivolous plot against its candidates’ was discovered after INEC in the state had last Wednesday taken delivery of the sensitive materials meant for the conduct of the February 25 elections, and were inspected by the party’s leadership in the state.

Chairperson of Labour Party in Lagos State, Mrs Dayo Ekong at a news conference in Ikeja, Friday, further said the party ‘denounces in its entirety the flagrant exclusion of the Labour Party candidates on the ballot papers’ for this Saturday’s National Assembly poll.

The party subsequently called on INEC ‘to postpone and reschedule the election until the party’s candidates duly included on the ballots.’

“This malicious error was detected earlier Friday in Lagos by team of executive members during the routine inspection of election materials.

“When we conducted an inspection, it was discovered that the Labour Party was not listed for the election for Senate and House of Representatives in Lagos State.

“This is unacceptable and a wicked way of disenfranchising Lagos electorate,” she has noted.

Further findings on the INEC website revealed that the list of names of Lagos Labour Party National Assembly candidates was not uploaded.

Continuing, LP leader said: “Even as the list and court orders for the same were duly submitted to INEC and acknowledged.”

She further lamented that ‘even the INEC has joined opposition to mare the chances of the party that is widely accepted by the people.’

It is not clear if INEC had corrected the omission of the party from the ballot in Ondo State for the Senatorial and Representatives elections.

The Ondo State chapter of the party had also registered similar complaints against the electoral umpire.

Reacting, Ondo LP chapter’s secretary, Mr Agbaje Abiodun, at a press briefing in Akure, Friday, while drawing attention of the general public to the omission of the party on the ballot, further threatened to challenge the action of INEC in court if it goes ahead to conduct the election as scheduled without amendments.