European Union observers contradicted retired Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's African Union (AU) report where he claimed that the Nigerian election process was conducted in a transparent atmosphere.
According to Chief Observer, Barry Andrews, a Member of the European Parliament who presented the preliminary findings of the European Union Election Observation Mission, the Nigerian elections were conducted in a challenging environment.
In particular, the EU criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for inadequately planning for the electoral process.
Another issue presented by Andrews included a lack of effective public communication which reduced trust in the process, especially on election day.
“Millions of Nigerian voters cast their vote in the Presidential, Senate and House of Representatives elections despite prevailing challenges. I commend the patience of voters as well as the commitment of youth who have contributed hugely to the democratic process,” Andrews pointed out.
According to the observer, the election day was marked by polling procedures not being followed. Further, uploading of results on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) proved an uphill task as the presidential election result forms began to appear on the portal very late on election day.
Evin Incir, Head of Delegation of the European Parliament, also pointed out to equality concerns as less than 10 percent of the candidates were women.
"I wish to express my concern that less than 10 percent of candidates were women. The next government and parliament should heed to the manifestos of the main political parties of Nigeria, which call for affirmative action, such as quotas," he stated.
According to a statement by Uhuru, AU's Head of Mission, the voting and counting took place in an open and transparent atmosphere in the presence of observers, party agents and media.
"The mission noted that voters in the queue at the closing time were allowed to cast their vote. Counting took place in an open and transparent environment," Uhuru's statement read in part.
