By Joseph Edegbo
A group of Civil Society Organisations which monitored the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Kaduna State, Northwest of the country, has listed a number of violations during the exercise.
These include, non-usage of smart Cards, late arrival of electoral materials to Polling stations, refusal to record results on Form EC8A at Polling units, even where forms available and refusal to remove Campaign posters, cases of intimidation and multiple voting, among others.
The CSOs headed by Emmanuel Bonnet of the AID Foundation, said at a news conference in Kaduna on Tuesday that the group dispatched over six hundred monitors to the 23 local government areas of the state where they observed the elections
Bonnet also spoke of the cumbersome nature in the voting process and therefore recommended that political parties not fielding Presidential candidates should not feature on the ballot paper.
Similarly, he said, ad-hoc staff not trained for the exercise should not be brought in to conduct the elections.
Bonnet advised the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to follow the process and the law in order to ensure that justice was done in the discharge of its duties.
The CSOs pledged its commitment towards mobilising the citizens for full participation in the remaining elections and advised the electorate against apathy that might arise from Saturday’s .elections