26 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Nigerian electoral commission has decided to extend to this Sunday the voting period for the presidential and legislative elections in the states of Cross River and Bayelsa after the chaos that occurred the day before, the official date of the elections, due to technical deficiencies in the voting system. voter identification and absence of electoral material.
“In the end, it has been decided to extend the voting in Cross River to Sunday, especially in the Bakassi local administration area,” according to a statement from the electoral commissioner for the state, Gabriel Yomere, collected by the ‘Premium Times’.
The local Bayelsa commissioner, Wilfred Ifoga, also decided late on Saturday to extend the deadline for voting to this Sunday given the protests of voters over the difficulties in casting their ballot.
To the technical problems we must add the “perennial threat of violence”, as officials of the Electoral Commission said this Saturday in their initial decision to prohibit any type of postponement in the vote.
In fact, and according to the same media outlet, the commission has threatened to cancel the election results in parts of Kogi state, according to its electoral commissioner, Hale Longpet, after several violent incidents in the east and west of the state, where several “thugs” stole some of the voting materials.
As if that were not enough, observers from Nigeria’s Center for the Development of Journalistic Innovation (CJID) and other civil society groups have denounced constant practices of misconduct by the secretaries of the electoral commission and polling station in many schools. elections in the country, beginning with its delay in reaching the centers, which has contributed to the difficult development of the elections.
From Human Rights Watch (HRW), its local manager, Anietie Ewang, has also warned of the “general insecurity” that has affected the elections. “This has created a climate of fear that could discourage people from voting. There continues to be concern about violence across the country, violence that the security forces have not been able to stop,” she said.
Ewang has denounced the presence of “thugs” harassing voters in Lagos. “It’s really worrying because the security forces have said that people would be able to go out and vote in a secure environment. There have been no incidents where the authorities have responded quickly,” she stressed.
In other areas, such as the south, people go out to vote “with resilience” despite the security forces, who, he recalls, carried out violent acts in the 2019 elections.
Also worrying is the evaluation of the NGO Yiaga Africa, specialized in electoral monitoring, which has warned that only four out of ten polling stations had opened their doors at 12:45 in the morning on Saturday, that is, less than two hours from Polls close in Africa’s most populous country, where almost 90 million people are eligible to vote in one of the most disputed elections in recent years.
