The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has observed that that the BVAS appeared to have largely worked well across the country during the 2023 gubernatorial elections compared to the presidential election.
In the statement signed by Chair of the CDD Election Analysis Centre (EAC), Professor Adele Jinadu and Director, Idayat Hassan on Saturday explained that in the southwest, the BVAS was correctly programmed for accreditation in over 95% of cases.
CDD noted “that in a handful of polling units in Taraba, Lagos and Plateau states, voting was concluded due to the number of registered voters being very small – less than 10 – and results have already been uploaded to IReV”.
According to them, observation data also indicated that in the south-south, the general sense of discouragement across the region that due to the unfavourable outcome of the presidential election affected turnout with voters declaring that ‘there is no point’ of coming out to vote.
On how widespread vote buying was in the polls, they said it data shows that there were more instances during the governorship elections compared to the presidential polls of February 25, with this reality reflected across all six geopolitical zones.
“This might be a reflection of the heightened political environment around governorship polls, the importance of local personalities in state-level politics, and the shortages of fuel and naira.”
“The preliminary statement similarly revealed that in the northwest, observers in all seven states reported increased reports of vote trading, primarily by political party agents.
” It said money was used alongside other materials such as food items, wrappers and a ‘credit voucher’ were used to buy votes and those items were to be redeemed after the results.
Similarly in the northeast, “political party agents in Taraba infiltrated the queue, pretended to be voters and used the chance to offer cash for votes”.
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