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EDO: Why Obaseki worries after voting

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6 years ago

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September 19, 2020

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After casting his vote at Polling Unit 19, ward 4, Oredo LGA, Edo Gov. Godwin Obaseki expressed dissatisfaction the way the guber election voting was progressing.

According to the PDP candidate, INEC should have done better than that.

“I waited for one and half hour on the queue before exercising my franchise, it’s a bit disappointing,” he said after voting.

“Giving that this is a sole day election, I expected better planning for this election. Card readers were very slow and that’s the situation everywhere.”

The delay he experienced was due to the card reader responding slowly.

For his special adviser Crusoe Osagie, the card reader wasn’t the problem.

Osagie believed was manipulation in areas where Obaseki is popular.

“Voters are being disenfranchised and we are constrained to say that this is sabotage,” he said.

“Specifically, in Oredo Ward 1, Unit 20 and other places where the Governor is clearly popular, the card readers are not working.

He challenged INEC to prove to voters that it can conduct a credible election in Edo.

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Vote-buying remains a major concern One of the strongest warnings from Osun was the continued presence of vote-buying and voter inducement. Yiaga Africa said the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were consistent with its independent statistical projections, but cautioned that this did not remove concerns about the integrity of voters' choices amid reports of vote-buying and inducement. The concern is particularly significant ahead of 2027, when political competition will take place nationwide and involve presidential, National Assembly and state-level contests. The International Republican Institute (IRI), following a pre-election assessment mission conducted in August, identified monetised political competition, election-related violence, insecurity and declining public confidence in INEC among the structural challenges facing the 2027 elections. IRI recommended stronger investigation and prosecution of vote-buying and voter inducement, urging INEC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and security agencies to act on credible allegations. Technology improves transparency — but has limits The Osun election also demonstrated how electoral technology can improve transparency. INEC's electronic transmission of polling-unit results through the IReV platform provided observers and members of the public with a mechanism to monitor uploaded results. Yiaga Africa subsequently said the official results were consistent with its independent statistical estimates, describing the outcome as evidence that the announced results reflected the ballots counted at polling units. However, technical problems with BVAS were reported during voting. CDD said difficulties involving biometric verification and slow processing occurred in several LGAs, including Irepodun, Ejigbo, Obokun, Osogbo, Olorunda, Ola Oluwa, Ede North and Ede South. 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For security agencies, it means preventing electoral violence and ensuring that investigations and prosecutions are not selective. Political parties also face pressure to take greater responsibility for the conduct of their candidates, agents and supporters, particularly over voter inducement and intimidation. A bigger test awaits in 2027 The central lesson from Osun may be that a technically transparent election is not automatically the same as a completely free election. Electronic transmission can make results easier to monitor, but technology cannot by itself prevent voters from being offered money, threatened or pressured before they cast their ballots. IRI's latest assessment similarly stressed that the credibility of the 2027 elections will depend not only on technical administration but also on security, consistent application of electoral rules, timely communication and public confidence in INEC. 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