Observers Call for Cancellation of Delta LG Elections, Want Fresh Polls

Sylvester Idowu

Coalition of the Civil Society groups in Nigeria that monitored last Saturday’s Delta State Local Government election has faulted and called for the cancellation of the entire exercise describing it as shameful.

The group, at a press conference in Warr,i yesterday gave an array of irregularities, including use of thugs to replace electoral officers, intimidation of voters across the state and widespread violence as reasons for its position.

It therefore called on both the Delta State government and the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC) to urgently cancel the process and organise a fresh one.

DSIEC, over the weekend, conducted Local Government elections across the 25 council areas of the state, a process that had since been rejected by the main opposition political parties led by the All Progressives’ Congress (APC).

Giving synopsis of some of the experiences of his coalition’s members, however, the chairman of the coalition, Comrade Friday Maduka, said the call for the cancellation and a fresh exercise became necessary as the one held on Saturday fell below international best practices.

“Most of the polling units visited in Delta Central Senatorial Districts had no voting materials throughout the scheduled period for the election exercise. However, in Ughelli North, there was commotion as angry electorate waited in vain for the arrival of voting materials to exercise their franchise. They took to the streets to protest their frustration and disappointment for not being given chance to cast their votes. The election was marred by late arrival of election materials, voters were seen in polling units waiting for arrival of voting materials.

“Similarly, in Ukwani local government area, Obiaruku, we observed the snatching of ballot boxes. The distribution of electoral materials was not transparent as observers were not given access to observe the distribution of materials by DSIEC. We also observed that most of the ad-hoc staff were replaced with thugs as presiding and returning officers, like in Ethiope West Local Government.

“There were no sensitive and non-sensitive materials in many of the polling units visited, there was violence and voters were scared away from polling units and voting centres by thugs who were shooting sporadically into the air, e.g, Oyubu Waterside in Oghara, Okadibo Unit 3.

“We call on the state government and DSIEC, to as a matter of urgency, immediately cancel the entire process of the election. We conclude that the election held on the 6th January in Delta state was marred by violence and it was not transparent, not credible and not peaceful across the state.

“The election process fell below international best practices, we therefore call for the outright cancellation of the election and call on DSIEC to conduct a fresh election in the state to save their face and gain back the trust of the people of Delta state”, the coalition admonished.