By Obinna Uballa
Yiaga Africa, a non-profit civic hub dedicated to promoting democratic governance, human rights, and civic participation across Africa, has raised concerns over logistical lapses, voter redistribution without adequate notice, and incidents of vote buying during Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections, even as it described the overall exercise as largely peaceful.
In a preliminary statement issued under its Watching the Vote (WTV) initiative, the civic organisation said it deployed trained and accredited roving observers across the 62 wards of the FCT to monitor the conduct of the elections into six Area Council Chairmanship positions and 62 Councillorship seats.
According to the statement signed by its Executive Director, Samson Itodo, and Director of Programmes, Cynthia Mbamalu, most polling units experienced delayed openings due to logistical inefficiencies and, in some cases, security-related challenges. As of 9:00 a.m., set-up activities were still ongoing in many locations, with accreditation and voting in several polling units – particularly in AMAC’s Wuse and Gwarinpa wards – commencing around 10:00 a.m.
Yiaga Africa also reported cases where essential materials were either delayed or missing. In one polling unit in Wuse Ward, the voter register was initially unavailable, while voting cubicles and an ink pad were absent in some polling units in Abaji Area Council.
The group further observed confusion arising from the redistribution of voters to newly created polling units without timely communication.
” Although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reportedly sent SMS notifications, many voters received the messages on Election Day, leading to overcrowding and difficulties in locating assigned polling units,” it said.
While noting that voters were generally able to cast their ballots in a peaceful atmosphere, Yiaga Africa documented isolated cases of polling units closing before the official 2:30 p.m. deadline and incidents of vote buying despite prior warnings by INEC and security agencies.
The organisation urged INEC to ensure strict adherence to guidelines in the collation and transmission of results, including the proper posting of Form EC 60E and upload of Form EC8A to the IReV portal.
Yiaga Africa reaffirmed its commitment to monitoring the collation process and called on voters, political parties, INEC, and security agencies to uphold transparency, professionalism, and peace throughout the electoral process.
