Two observer groups, Centre for Citizens with Disability (CCD) and Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) have commended the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the smooth conduct of the Anambra governorship election, which held last Saturday.
CCD, which concerned itself mostly on the welfare of People With Disability (PWD), said the election was largely successful, but lamented that the provision of materials like sign languages and Braille materials that would help PWDs during voting were provided late.
The Executive Director of CCD, Mr David Anyaele, who briefed journalists in Awka on the outcome of Saturday’s election said Braille materials and sign languages meant to guide the blind and deaf in the voting were not adequate, just as some were provided late.
“They brought it less than 48 hours before the election, so how do we distribute them to our members and across the voting centres to help PWDs to vote rightly in the election.
“We commend INEC for deploying the materials, but our plea to the national assembly is to strengthen section 52(2) of the 2010 electoral act by making the provision of Braille and sign language interpreters mandatory as opposed to leaving it to the discretion of INEC as the case is today,” he said.
YIAGA, an observer group which deployed over 500 observers to monitor the Anambra election on its part said that the group was poised to blow the whistle on INEC should the results collated by its observers in the field had been jettisoned for something else.
It said, “The INEC official result for the election fell within the range we estimated, giving confidence that the result announced reflect the ballots cast at the polling units. Further, INEC’s turnout and rejected ballot figures are consistent with our estimates as announced earlier.”
The group, however, noted that the delay in the collation and announcement of the result at the state collation centre raised unnecessary suspicion amongst key election stakeholders.
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