‘Crowded PUs, limited BVAS devices’ — AU releases preliminary report on Nigeria’s polls | TheCable

The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) has released its preliminary report on the conduct of the presidential and national assembly elections in Nigeria.

The mission, in its report released on Monday, expressed concern over late start of polling in 83 per cent polling units monitored.

“The average delay was more than an hour. In some cases, they opened by 11:00 am. This was largely due to late arrival of polling officials and materials and slow installation of polling units,” the report read. Is.

The mission, however, called for a review of the “electoral logistics operation strategy to ensure timely deployment of electoral material and personnel and adequate capacity building”.

The AUEOM also blamed the unbalanced allocation of voters per polling unit, saying that the disparity in the distribution of voters to electoral officials stresses voters.

“The process had a number of impacts including straining some poll workers who had to manage large numbers of voters. Further, this inequity of voter allocation affects the optimal utilization of INEC resources especially in polling units with minimum number of voters,” the report reads.

AUEOM also commended INEC on the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), but added that the number of equipment was limited, and this affected the smooth conduct of the process.

“The Mission appreciates the innovation of using BVAS technology to authenticate voters. This has enhanced the credibility of the process. In 94% of the polling units visited, BVAS functioned successfully,” reads the report.

“In some cases, the mission observed that the limited number of BVAs as compared to the large number of voters allotted to the polling unit resulted in delay in the process, leading to frustration among voters, who had to wait longer in queues.”

In its recommendation, the AUEOM advised regulation of the number of BVAS machines “deployed at each polling unit to match the allotment of voters per unit”.