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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Centre for Development and Democracy (CDD), an observer group monitoring the Ekiti State governorship election, has released its preliminary reports.
Chair, CDD-Election Analysis Centre, Prof Adele Jinadu, in a statement on Saturday, said, so far, the exercise has been peaceful and voting commenced on time.
Jinadu said: “Reports from CDD field observers indicate that the general atmosphere in which the election is being conducted has been peaceful and voting has largely proceeded smoothly without any reported incidents of violence or disruption of the process.
“Data from the areas covered by our observers indicate that 86 per cent of INEC officials had arrived at their polling units by 8:30am. Data from CDD-EAC Electronic Observer Platform further showed that 74 per cent of INEC poll officials addressed voters before the 8:30am official time of poll opening,” he added.
“CDD-EAC observers also reported a significant increase in the number of female INEC officials, with the data showing that eight polling units had poll officials who were exclusively female.
“The CDD-EAC data further showed that while four Polling Units had no female at all; all the others had both male and female INEC officials present.
“In terms of availability of important election materials, CDD-EAC data indicated that in at least 83 per cent of polling units critical election materials like ballot papers, BVAS devices, results sheets, ballot boxes and the voter register were available for the conduct of the election.
“In most of the polling units, CDD-EAC observers did not see or report any form of campaigning; however, in 11.3 per cent of polling units campaigns and display of campaign materials was reported.
“Observer data showed all Polling Units reported the presence of at least one party agent. However in Polling Unit 003, Ward 06 in Ekiti West LGA, only one party had an agent.
“CDD-EAC data showed that in all 168 Polling Units, BVAS was available; however in polling unit 010 Ward 10, in Irepodun Ifelodun LGA, there was no BVAS at the time when poll was expected to commence.
“CDD-EAC Fake News Hub tracked and fact-checked a number of fake news and misinformation trending on Election Day.
“A major trending item was the purported withdrawal letter of the SDP candidate Segun Oni, and his endorsement of the PDP candidate, which circulated across social media.
“This claim was subsequently confirmed to be ‘false’. Regrettably, this might be cited by the party as a reason for any poor performance.
“Another claim on Twitter was that 9 million voters are expected to vote in the Ekiti 2022 gubernatorial election.
“This claim was checked by CDD-EAC fact checkers, who returned a verdict of “false” for the claim.
“CDD checks further showed that there are 988,923 voters registered by INEC for the Ekiti Governorship election.
“Another fake news was tracked relating to claims that in Ido/Osi soldiers were preventing voters from going to their polling units.
“CDD-EAC fact checkers verified this claim from field observers and found it to be false.
“Similarly in Ikole polling unit 8, Ward 10, CDD-EAC fact-checkers tracked a claim that INEC officials were addressing voters in Yoruba only because they can’t speak English.
“This claim was also checked and found to be false, as it was verified that INEC officials spoke to voters in both English and Yoruba.”
