Imo Polls Marred With Irregularities- International Observer Group

An International election monitoring group, the Pan African Women Projects has said the result of the Imo gubernatorial polls was marred with irregularities as shown in the IREV portal.

PAWP Head of Mission, Dr Eno Udensi made the disclosure during their post election briefing in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

According to her, there were irregularities in the tallied results as shown in the IREV portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying results were uploaded for polling units where elections did not hold.

She said “At this election we observed in the tallied results as shown in the portal. Also, there were polling units that observed that elections were not held. When these reports came to our situation room, we asked our observers to get footage of these units for our reports.

“The elections in Imo State were conducted at variance with the provisions of the electoral act 2022 but we are hopeful that the electoral commission will pay attention to these irregularities and consider our recommendations and suggestions in our report for subsequent credibility in future elections to be conducted”, Udensi said.

The group called on INEC to use drones to deploy key materials to RAC centres and allow presiding officers and assistants to head straight to their respective centres ahead of time to commence accreditation on time.

Further, the Pan African Women Projects admonished INEC to engage seasoned NGO workers, civil society organisations, top civil servants and private sector workers of proven integrity as against the young adhoc staff deployed for the election noting that their capacity was tasked.

They called on the Inspector General of Police to organise a stakeholders meeting with representatives of political parties, INEC, observers, and the media to address the grey areas of security lapses during the election and foster corrections for subsequent polls.

PAWP stated that there were incidents of violence, intimidation, ballot box snatching in Oru East and West, Ikeduru, Owerri Municipal, and several other local government areas of the state even as they expressed gratitude to INEC for the opportunity to serve a foreign observer group, the media for unbiased reporting and the entire observation groups deployed for the election.