Home NEWS European Union Says 2019 Elections Were ‘Competitive’ For All Parties

European Union Says 2019 Elections Were ‘Competitive’ For All Parties

Foriegn Election observers at AH Unit at Omisore polling centre in Ile Ife.

European Union (EU) has said that the 2019 general elections in Nigeria were competitive with all political parties participating freely.

It said in an executive summary of its report, made public today, June 15: “positively, the elections were competitive, parties were overall able to campaign and civil society enhanced accountability.”

This was contained on page three in its Executive Summary, even as it acknowledged that INEC made a number of improvements, including making electoral participation more accessible through simplified voting procedures.

According to the report, INEC made efforts to strengthen electoral integrity by issuing regulations making smart card readers mandatory.

On page four, the EU noted that the elections were competitive with a large number of candidates for all seats although competition was primarily between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.

According to the report ‘‘parties and candidates were overall able to campaign, with freedoms of assembly, expression and movement broadly respected.”

On Page five, the report noted that the EU EOM media monitoring over 46 days showed federal government-owned Radio’s commitment to balanced election coverage.

It said that positively in almost all observations party agents received copies of the results forms, adding that the National Collation Centre for the presidential election was open to party agents and observers, and was continuously televised

On page 37, the report said the national collation Centre for the presidential results was open to party agents, observers and the media with each state’s results projected on a large screen. ‘‘There was continuous live television coverage and the media published the results as announced by INEC, thereby increasing access to results information.’’

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Page 41 under section RESULTS AND STAKEHOLDER REACTION, EU SAID: ‘‘YIAGA Africa announced that the results were consistent with its parallel vote tabulation that INDEPENDENTLY projected the results based on a sample of 1,515 polling units. The two leading parties won 96.8% of the valid votes between them.’’

The EU said that INEC has already received a number of recommendations that formed a part of its report.

Meanwhile, the Presidency has hailed the EU report and promised to analyse it fully and act on the recommendations.

In a statement by the senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, the Presidency said that the EU observers were invited to the country by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and welcomed by the government of President Buhari.

The statement said that such act was a clear indication of the administration’s good intentions, commitment to a pure democratic process, and desire to improve for the next elections.

 The Presidency assured that the Commission is in safe hands and happy that they are currently engaged in root and branch reviews of the 2019 general elections and will input lessons learned into its recommendations for electoral and constitutional reforms.

“We believe that the commission conducted a good election and will continue to improve on its processes and procedures.

“While it is regretted that the elections in a few parts of the country witnessed some violence, among other shortcomings highlighted by the EU, we note however that none of these hitches affected the overall outcome of the elections.”

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