The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) Kwara state chapter Tuesday described the outcome of the February 23 presidential and national assembly elections in the state a rape on democracy and the subversion of the will of the people of the state.
It regretted that the conduct of the elections in the state was largely marred by irregularities, obviously perpetrated to favour the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The state chairman of CNPP, Alhaji Adebayo Lawal, posited that in most polling units across the state, card readers malfunctioned during the elections.
“Facts available to us show that less than 20 per cent of the 486,254 voters who voted during the presidential and national assembly elections in Kwara were validated by card readers. Many of those who voted did so manually. And this was with the approval of INEC officials. This resulted in over voting and the use of unclaimed PVCs by agents of a certain political party to vote during the elections.
“This is clearly against the initial guideline given by INEC that only voters accredited through card readers would be allowed to vote, and that any voting not verified and authenticated by the card readers would be declared null and void,” he stated.
Lawal lamented that the use of manual accreditation allowed for manipulation of the election, saying his association has written the state INEC on the matter.
“In most polling units across the state, card readers malfunctioned during the elections. Facts available to us show that less than 20 per cent of the 486,254 voters who voted during the presidential and national assembly elections in Kwara were validated by card readers. Many of those who voted did so manually. And this was with the approval of INEC officials. This resulted in over voting and the use of unclaimed PVCs by agents of a certain political party to vote during the elections.
“This is clearly against the initial guideline given by INEC that only voters accredited through card readers would be allowed to vote, and that any voting not verified and authenticated by the card readers would be declared null and void.”
The CNPP leader also expressed concern that agents of opposition political parties, who protested that card readers were not being used for voting in their respective polling units were harassed by security officials, saying from its own assessment the election in Kwara was a charade, flawed and discredited exercise.
“The results did not reflect the wishes of the vast majority of the electorate in Kwara”, he said and added that for the next set of elections “only those verified and authenticated by card readers only must be allowed to vote in the elections as stipulated in the electoral act.”
According to him if the card readers at a polling unit are not working, INEC officials at such polling unit should request for functioning card readers in replacement, and if there is no provision for that, elections in such polling unit must be suspended.
