At least seven out of 21 local government areas in Anambra State have been marred with electoral inconsistencies such as over-voting, disenfranchisement and absence of electoral personnel in Saturday’s gubernatorial polls, FIJ can report.
While the collation officer for Ayamelum LGA was still announcing the votes, the electoral panel halted the process after observing conflicting figures in the number of voters.
Amidst massive complaints of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), six polling units in Anambra East also recorded cases of over-voting, leading to the disenfranchisement of over 2,000 voters.
READ MORE: Low Turnout, No Food Allowance for Police… How Anambra Election Went
In addition to the reported cases of ballot snatching facilitated by sporadic shooting, nonfunctional BVAs and absence of electoral officers, 40,337 eligible people across 89 polling units of Idemili South were unable to cast their votes.
Eighty-five eligible people across 16 polling units of three registration areas of Nnewi North were unable to vote because INEC personnel were not deployed to the location.
Officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were also absent at three polling units across two registrations areas of Anaocha, thereby hindering a total of 409 eligible people from voting.
READ MORE: APGA Agents Woo Anambra Voters With N20,000, Issue Yellow Cards as Tickets
Similarly, FIJ had on Saturday observed that no INEC official was present at one of the newly-created polling units in the Achalla area of Awka North. The police officers seen on duty were, however, re-mobilized to another polling unit within the village.
In late October, INEC announced that voting would not take place in 86 of the 5,720 polling units in Anambra because there were no voters there.
Additional 1,112 polling units were established in Anambra, to complement the existing 4,608 locations, which brought the number of polling units to 5,720.
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