EQUITY INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE SITUATION ROOM ELECTION
PRELIMINARY REPORT FOR GENERAL ELECTION HELD ON 23rd
FEBRUARY,2019
INTRODUCTION
Equity International Initiative(EII) is a Nongovernmental organization committed to
Promoting Human Rights, Rule of law, Good Governance, Justice Reform as well as
Promoting Religious Freedom, setup the Situation Room on the 9th of February 2019 for
the General Election and also deployed over 11,000 citizen observers across the country
with an app called Equity Election Tracker (EET) downloaded by over 8,000 observers
aimed at monitoring the 2019 general election.
METHODOLOGY
The Equity Election Tracker app was used to generate all data/information by the
observers on the field across the 774 local government of Nigeria, EII collaborated with
INEC, Nigeria Police Force as well as two(2) Civil Society Organization (CSO) with the
aim off act checking all incidents gotten from EET app which were quantitatively and
empirically analyzed.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
-Arrival of Security Personnel at the Polling Unit
Reports from our observers across the nation, indicates that security personnel
deployed to the polling units arrived early. Forexample, 22% of the security personnel
arrived the polling units before 7:00am and 43% arrived between 7:00am –7:59am.
However, about 30% of the security officers arrived between 8.00am -9.00am and 5%
came extremely late later.
-Late Arrival of ad-hoc Staff/Election materials:
There was 60% late arrival of Material to polling unit between 10am -12noon while 39%
early. arrival was between 7:30am -9:59am and 1% of extreme late and no arrival of
adhoc staff and material with 5% incomplete materials at polling units were recorded
across the country.
-Deployment and Adequacy of Security Agents.
EII observed multi-agency deployment of security personnel such as the Nigeria Police
Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria
Immigration Service, Nigeria Prison Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Department of
Security Service and the Armed Forces amongst others. They provided safety and
security for the entire election process. The EET app reported that 37% of the polling
unit shad three or more security personnel to provide safety and security of voters and
voting materials and maintenance of law and order within the voting areas. While, 33% of
the polling units had just two security officers deployed to provide security to voters, observers and electoral materials as well as maintenance of law and order within the
voting area. Our observers also noted that some polling units were grossly under-policed.
Our observers observed that 27% of the polling units had just one police officer. Despite
the perceived lopsidedness that characterized the deployment of security officers, 65%
of the observers adjudged that the number of security officials present in the polling
units were adequate or very adequate at all times.
-Conduct of Security Personnel
Security personnel largely conducted themselves in a commendable manner. They
exhibited professionalism in maintaining law and order and assisted in coordinating the
electoral process where necessary in most polling units. Available report notes that 85%
of the observers rated the conduct of security personnel attached to the polling units across the nation as good and very good.
Specifically, 92% of the security personnel attached to the polling unit were observed to
be approachable to the voters,81% of the security officers were observed to be impartial
on election duty across the polling units. However, about 12% of the security officers
deployed to the poling units were observed to be somewhat partial and partial. This
gives credence to incidents of complicity of security personnel on election duty in some
polling units.
-Safety and Security at the polling units
The observers noted that 89% of the voters felt safe at the polling units respectively.
This implies that majority of voters generally felt safe at the polling units across the
country as result of the presence of security personnel during the election.
-Failure of Card Readers:
The report from Observers show failure of smart card readers in three out of every Ten
(10) polling units leading to the slow-down of the election process leading to counting of
votes.
-Cases of Loss of Life
There were reported cases of deaths in some states in the country including Rivers,Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Kogi, Delta, Oyo, Lagos and Zamfara States.
-Vote Buying.
Incidents of vote-buying were reported in some states, including Akwa-Ibom, Edo,
Zamfara, Benue and Kogi states.
–Missing Names on the Voters’Register
There were reported cases of missing names on the voters’ register. It was recorded
mainly at the South South and South Western region including the FCT.
Cancelled Votes
Due to reasons best known to some INEC returning officers at local government, wards
and polling units, results were cancelled unjustly in a lot of states, especially within the
North Central, South Eastern and South Southern part of the Country.
EQUITY INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE wish to condemn in strong terms this act from INEC.
Report of confirmed Death during the 23rd February 2019 Election. Number Of Casualties Place|.Date
15 dead| Rivers| 23rdFebruary,2019
2 dead | Oyo | 23rdFebruary,2019
2 dead | Kogi| 23rdFebruary,2019
3 dead | Delta| 23rdFebruary,2019
Conclusion and Recommendation
We urge INEC to do all within its powers to improve on the electoral process. Learning
from the short comings of the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on
Saturday 23rd February 2019,INEC should ensure a better administration of the
Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections slated for the 9th of March 2019.
We also call upon the security agencies to ensure the safety of all citizens as the
electoral process advances to the critical stages of collation and announcement of
results. Finally, we appeal to all citizens and politicians toremain law abiding and orderly
through out the electoral process.
Equity Election Situation Room Observed lots of Irregularities and widespread Violence
during the election and is disappointed with the conduct of the 2019 presidential and
national assembly election despite the postponement of the election to23rd Febuary
2019 on grounds of logistics.
EII Condemns the general conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections
held on the 23rd of February 2019, the election were marred with irregularities, voter-
intimidation by thugs and security agencies deployed to South-South, South-East, North-
Central and South-West of Nigeria.
EII condemns the role some INEC officials played in compromising theconduct of the
presidential and national assembly election and as such declare unequivocally that the
23rd of February elections was not free, fair and credible.
EII condemns the cancellation of votes in major polling unit across the country
especially in North-Central (Plateau state,Nassarawa State and Benue state) and South-
South which includes Rivers and Akwa-Ibom and some parts of South-East.millions of citizens were deliberately disenfranchised by INEC.
EII condemns the role played by INEC returning officers in altering and rejecting votes.
We condemn in strongest terms the altering of the results from different States that was
finally announced by INEC in Abuja. Many of the reports changed from what they were
at the polling units by the time INEC was making the announcements.
EII calls for immediate sanctions and prosecution of all INEC officials involved in
compromising the conduct of the presidential And national assembly elections.
EII Recommends in summary to INEC and Security Agency the following. 1.Adherence to INEC Election Guidelines.
2.Alternative/Configuration Card Reader. The Card reader failed in so many Southern States and North Central and all the manual voting that was carried out was eventually
cancelled there by disenfranchising eligible Nigerian voters.
3.Speedy Resolution of Logistical. Challenges
4.Provision of adequate security and Neutrality of Security Officials at all times.
5.INEC should call for Election in all the cancelled local governments, wards and polling
unit across the country
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