What EU observers says about APC, PDP, others

Some election observer missions have started releasing their preliminary reports on the Feb 23 general elections on Nigeria.

Each mission pointed out lapses in certain aspects of the election management, but generally commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for ensuring a transparent process.

They commended Nigerians for their conduct during the polls.

In its assessment, the European Union Election Observation Mission noted that “The presidential and National Assembly elections were competitive and candidates were able to campaign freely”.

However, it also stated that in the run-up to the elections on February 23, the parties ran very bitter campaigns, putting INEC under strenuous circumstance leading to “serious operational shortcomings,” which it said “reduced confidence in the process and put an undue burden on voters.”

The EU mission also noted that most polling units opened very late, “leaving voters waiting for hours uncertain of when voting would begin.

In nearly 90 per cent of 190 EU observations, agents of the two main political parties were both present.

“There were evident problems in completing results forms and they were not publicly displayed in half the counts observed, weakening transparency” although party agents received copies of the results in almost all cases,” state the mission.

It added that increased its communication with stakeholders as expected after the postponement of the Presidential and National Assembly elections earlier scheduled for Saturday, February 16, 2019, a decision that attracted wide criticism.