Bauchi LG Poll: Poor Voter Turnout Blamed On Late Arrival Of Materials

Bauchi State local government election recorded poor voter turnout yesterday due to late arrival and distribution of sensitive materials across the state.

Our correspondent gathered that voters arrived at several polling units early to cast their votes but could not stay long as both election officials and materials were nowhere to be found as at 10:00 am and in some places, up to noon.

It was gathered that the delay was caused by the Bauchi  State Independent Electoral Commission (BASIEC) inability to mobilise officials to their respective polling units.

At Yelwan Duguri village where Governor Bala Mohammed registered to vote, the election was  held, especially at the model primary school where the exercise was concluded as about 1:15pm.

Garba Halliru Abubakar, a presiding officer at the polling station said accreditation of voters started by 8: 00am, and the poll was free and fair.

Abubakar said the results were already out at the three polling within the model school.

He announced the results for the PDP as 453 votes and APC 10 votes, while for the councillorship, APC got 74 votes and PDP got 462. Total registered voters were 542.

It showed that across four polling units within Bauchi metropolis which has over 3,244 registered voters, only 58 persons voted i.e. only about 2% of voters in that area voted at 1:30 pm.

Other local governments in the state had a similar pattern of voter apathy.

Some attributed it to the farming season while others didn’t have confidence in the election.

Meanwhile, Mr Mamman Eri, the led observer, as well as the chairman, Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission who led the team of other state chairmen of SIEC to monitor the election, said the election was peaceful.

He commended people of Bauchi State for conducting themselves well at polling units and the security agencies for maintaining peace.