It has been revealed how the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] disenfranchised voters through the use of manual accreditation in the just-concluded 2019 presidential election.
It was observed that INEC perpetrated this act through the use of manual accreditation of voters against its own rules.
It was further observed that consequent to the illegal action, the following number of eligible voters were disenfranchised:
- Kano ——- 59%
- Katsina—– 62%
- Niger ——- 57%, while in
- Borno —— 66% voters were disenfranchised.
According to reports, INEC allowed manual accreditation of voters in the north and refused southerners and middle-belt the same opportunity even where card readers failed or there is inadequacy of them.
INEC said that manually accredited results will not be allowed but so far, midway into the collation of results, there has not been reported manually accredited results being allowed.
Consequently, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] has demanded that the electoral umpire must publish the list of voters accredited electronically state by state.
One of PDP spokespersons, Mr. Osita Chidoka made the demand after the INEC collation officer released the result of Bauchi State.
Mr. Chidoka requested INEC to provide an audit of card readers to enable stakeholders compare the results.
On his part, PDP’s Vice presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi said the results declared by INEC from Anambra state was unacceptable to the party.
He accused the electoral umpire of disenfranchising over 8 million registered voters in the South East Geo-political Zone in the last general election.
Addressing newsmen in his Onitsha residence, Obi further lamented that the election was systematically planned to ensure the zone did not participate fully in the exercise.
He argued that only 20% were able to cast their votes out of 10 million registered voters in the South East region.
He said, “You will recall that on the election day I said that the process was clumsy and we also had major problem of card readers and most people could not vote.
“When over 400,000 Card Readers got burnt it became clear that something was wrong somewhere and INEC could not save the situation and they will not allow people to vote manually.
“But in some other parts of the country people are allowed to vote manually and it was accepted by the electoral body. Now how can you tell me that a state like Yobe and Bornu produced the number of voters that is higher than Anambra and Ebony states put together?
“The two states are areas that have been at war and I wonder how they got Card Readers that are working so well despite the war situation that they found themselves?
Regreting the retrogressive disposition the country was tilting to, he added: “The impressive turn out of voters was discouraged by the performance of the electoral body last Saturday.
Obi further decried the harassment and attack members of his party had suffered in the hands of security agencies targeted at intimidating them.