Imo Electorate Prevails

Election Situation Room - Report

7 May 2011

Imo Electorate Prevails

The Civil Society Election Situation Room would like to note the following in the just-concluded Imo State supplementary governorship and state house of assembly elections.

Firstly, we would like to recognise the courage and persistence of the electorate in ensuring that the election was free and fair. In all the polling units observed, it was clear that the people were united in their determination that the usual malpractices associated with elections would not prevail. This was true right across the board, both old and young, men as well as women.

Secondly, we would also like to note the professionalism of the military, which was instrumental in ensuring a level playing field for all concerned actors, even though their massive presence acted to intimidate the electorate. This was especially true where, in a particular polling unit, hired thugs of one of the political parties attempted to attack observers in order to subvert the process. Unfortunately, the same could not always be said of the police, who were not above acting in a partisan manner in some instances.

Thirdly, we would like to commend the courage of INEC to cancel the election at Oguta, which was entirely justified based on observable facts. 

That said, the Civil Society Election Situation Room remains mystified at the failure of INEC to deliver election materials on time, which was the case in many of the polling units in the four LGAs concerned. As noted in our previous statement, election materials arrived after 11 a.m., just one hour before accreditation was supposed to have ended. It was this same problem which had caused the initial National Assembly election of April 2 to be postponed but which we assumed had been largely solved, at least as far as the subsequent two elections were concerned. Inevitably, this generated unnecessary tension in an election where emotions were already running high.

In the light of the above, we believe that the police should cooperate with INEC to prosecute those found to have committed electoral offences. We also believe that it is important for both INEC and the police to return to the drawing board ahead of the 2015 elections.