‘I Report’ PLATFORM is an offshoot of CIEPD’s ‘Conflict Watch Centre’ (CWC) established as a space for real-time reporting of elections incidents by credible civil society organisations and individuals. The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM also tracks the trends and patterns of electoral incidences, analyses the consequences of impact of the reported incidence and comes up with appropriate strategies for intervention.
The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM observed the 2019 Governorship and House of Assembly Elections held on Saturday, 9th of March 2019 in 29 states of the Federation. The Platform focused majorly on Rivers State and received pockets of reports from Akwa Ibom State, Imo State, Bayelsa and Cross River States. As such, this reporting is majorly based on real time reports from areas we effectively covered in Rivers State.
(https://ciepdcwc.crowdmap.com)
The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM commends INEC for the early dispatch of complete election materials in the Port Harcourt Axis of Rivers State and a majority of the Local Government Areas, except Bakana and Khana where materials arrived late at about12noon.
The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM also commends Traditional Rulers in Bonny Kingdom and Abonema amongst others, who ensured peace accords in their community, which led to a very peaceful electioneering process as was suggested in our statement on
The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM observed the failure of card readers in some polling units and consequent reversion to manual accreditation which is usually characterised by multiple voting and malpractices.
The I Report PLATFORM observed scanty presence of Election Observers during the 9th March election. This we learnt was as a result of lack of funding for observers to be engaged for the Governorship and State Assembly. It therefore seems that donor funding focused more on Presidential Election and National Assembly than the Governorship and state House of Assembly elections.
The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM noticed widespread voter apathy occasioned by fear of insecurity/Violence and questions on credibility of the entire electioneering process amongst others.
The turnout of especially women was drastically reduced compared to the Presidential/ National Assembly elections.
The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM received reports of engagement of partisan persons as ad-hoc staff (Electoral Officers) in the conduct of the election in Rivers State, which negates the concept of independence of INEC. This from the reports we received contributed to some of the electoral incidences that were experienced in Rivers State.
The Platform is also very much concerned with the inefficiency of some INEC ad hoc Staff to operate the card reader and follow INEC established due process. We continued to receive reports of ad hoc staff lack of good knowledge of the process even after recommending that INEC retrain their staff for the 9th February election in the statement that we issued them. Lack of good knowledge of the process can most times brew contentious disposition which can escalate to violence if not well handled.
The Platform observed issues of multiple voting, voting by proxy.
The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM fully supports the suspension of the collation process by INEC on the good reasoning that the said suspension doused the escalating tension and violence in the polity and arrested the massive interference and disruption of the process by hoodlums, politicians and armed men.
'The ‘I Report’ PLATFORM commends the Nigeria Army for aiding the Nigerian Police to ensure security and order in the election process, which averted the kind of blood bath witnessed in the previous 2015 Elections.
However, The I Report PLATFORM received several reports of electoral malpractices (ballot snatching, illegal invasion of collation centers, intimidation of voters and INEC officials etc) carried out by men of the Nigerian Army.
The PLATFORM is aware that S. 217 (2c) of The Nigerian Constitution (As Amended) allows the military to aid civil authorities to ensure order in society at the Order of The President. However, they are to operate professionally within the ambits of the law and nothing more pretentious or outrageous. The PLATFORM is therefore requesting that INEC sets up a Panel of Inquiry to determine the undue involvement of The Nigeria Army and The Nigeria Police in the 2019 General Elections.
Finally, we must categorically state, that the entire 2019 elections did not record remarkable improvement from the previous elections but repeated the same scenario of violence, irregularities, intimidation by men in uniform, vote-buying, cult activities and other violent acts perpetrated especially during counting, and collation of votes in the various collation centers
Conclusively, we recommend as follows;
List of Organizations
Signed:
Egondu Esinwoke
On behalf of the above organizations
Election Observers’ Debriefing Session on Wednesday, 27th of February 2019
On Saturday, 23rd February 2019, voters across Nigeria went to the poll to elect the President, 109 Senators and 360 Members of the House of Representatives. CIEPD set up an ‘iReport’ platform linked to the ‘Conflict Watch Centre’ (https://ciepdcwc.crowdmap.com) in partnership with other CSOs to verify and validate electoral violent incidences, track the trend and patterns of electoral incidences, analyse the consequences of impact of the reported incidences and come up with appropriate strategies for intervention. Although the Presidential and National Election was relatively peaceful in River State, some of the areas that were considered violent, emerged less violent as anticipated while others fitted into already anticipated patterns and trends. The following grouped line graph is a summary of incidences reported by the trackers on the platform.
The review of the election observers proffered the following suggestions on some of the issues that emerged during the period for possible actions to be taken on the learning, and thereby making the next round of elections to be more free, fair and more credible.
Communities
The Platform commends those communities in Rivers State that have been able to reduce incidents of election violence by bringing together key political actors within their communities to agree and support peaceful elections in their communities.
The platform is calling on Traditional Rulers and Persons of notable Influence in violence prone communities to immediately initiate peace accords in order to arrest and prevent violence and malpractices that may lead to loss of lives and properties in the forthcoming election.
We further call on communities to conduct advocacy meetings against election violence before the next election; 9th March 2019 .The said community advocacy should promote the peace campaign “Vote! Not Fight".
The Platform regrets the takeover of community governance structures by different cult groups in Rivers State, which is a potential cause of electoral violence and killings. As such, we call on the traditional rulers to purge its governance structures of cultists or any affiliation with cult groups in order to promote neutrality and objectivity in decision making.
Security
The Platform firmly demands security agencies in charge of elections to operate within the confines of the law and calls for preventive policing such as mobbing of arms, securing of local borders, stop and search exercise etc. in order to reduce incidents of violence.
The Platform also calls for an independent panel of inquiry to be set up to investigate immediate and remote causes of electoral violence and killings attributable to the activities and actions of the security agencies and operatives.
INEC
The Platform noticed thousands of incidents of void/cancelled/rejected/invalid votes during the presidential election; an indication of poor voter education by both INEC and the National Orientation Agency (NOA). Therefore we urge INEC and NOA to extend its vote education exercise to the rural and remote communities.
The Platform observed that the criteria set by INEC for the recruitment of ad hoc staff for election purposes was not strictly adhered to.
The Platform also noticed that some INEC ad hoc staff do not adequately understand the processes, and procedures for conducting elections and so, the need for such ad hoc staff to be re-briefed before the 9th March 2019, on who is to vote, how to vote, and how to count.
The Platform strongly suggests that INEC official be discouraged from visiting political party officials on election days with election materials. We further insist that partisan individuals who identify with political parties should not carry out critical INEC duties.
We recommend that special security arrangements should be made for all INEC’s ad hoc staff before, during, and after elections especially the Youth Corp members.
INEC staff on official duties should be properly identified.
INEC officials on election duties must follow travel safety rules and regulation both on land and along water ways (to avoid night sailing, in order to prevent incidences similar to the unfortunate case of Mrs. Ibisaki Amachree)
INEC should engage more election monitors than observers. Election observers do not direct election procedures. They only observe.
Political Parties
The Platform noticed that some party agents stood for their party and other parties. As such we insist that such malpractices that is capable of undermining the electoral process be terminated forthwith.
Political parties should abide by the electoral guidelines.
Government
The Platform urges the government to strengthen its criminal justice system and the zeal of the police to enforce its directive against vote buying and other electoral offences.
The Platform unequivocally demands the prosecution and sanction of any person found committing any electoral offence whatsoever.
Conclusively, the platform calls on all the stakeholders in the electoral process (INEC, SECURITY AGENCIES, OBSERVERS, POLITICAL PARTIES, POLITICIANS, and COMMUNITY LEADERS ETC to evaluate its shortfalls and make effective improvement in the upcoming elections of 9th March 2019.
List of Organizations
Signed:
Egondu Esinwoke
On behalf of the above organizations
CC:
With the 28th of March election come and gone without the much predicted increase of electoral violence due to unprecedented interventions such as His Excellency,
As the days for the state election draws closer, we should begin to intensively look at the different scenarios that might play out with a view of pre-empting
Abia State- The supplementary election will be held in Aba North and Abia South , Isiala Ngwa North ( some wards) Local Government Councils etc.
In 2003, there were agitation/mobilization against voters registration exercise by the then Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC),
The presidential elections had barely ended when the flood gates were opened on reports of alleged malpractices and irregularities during the polls streamed in. accusations
The year 1999 was the return of Nigeria to democracy, from military transition to a civilian democratic rule, which is now 16 years under the civilian administration. The current democratic dispensation is in its fourth electoral cycle and a culture of citizen engagement has begun to take root.
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