Anambra Decides: Why Voting Was Delayed In Some Polling Units – INEC

The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra State, Nkwachukwu Orji, has explained that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) delayed voting in some polling units in the governorship election due to glitches. 

Although voting ought to have ended by 2:30 pm, the electoral body extended the exercise. This was after INEC had earlier admitted that some of its accreditation devices had malfunctioned while it had been unable to make necessary deployment to certain areas.

While speaking on Channels Television’s News At 10 on Saturday night, Orji said the electoral body was disappointed with some glitches experienced with the accreditation devices among other issues.

“We were a bit disappointed with some of the glitches that we had with the accreditation device. We were also shocked by the behaviour of some of the ad-hoc staff that we had mobilised, and trained for several weeks,” he said.

“Some of them, based on the reports we received, got into the Registration Area Centres (RAC) but could not make themselves available for the duties.”

“First, we had resistance in opening polls in many polling units in Oba area of Idemili South Local Government. We were not able to open it because materials were snatched and destroyed. We had that as a major challenge we confronted,” he explained.

“Of course, we have mentioned the issue of glitches that we had with our accreditation which was a major setback to us.

“Finally, we had to deal with the fear our transport providers had in terms of making their vehicles available to us to use for the election. That also delayed our mobilisation and deployment this morning.”

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Giving an update on the Anambra election, the REC explained that INEC is going through the process of collation of results that started from the RA/Ward level and will progress to the local government.

According to him, the state collation centre would be opened on Sunday morning to receive results from the various local government areas.

He explained that voting had been concluded in all polling units that were opened by the commission on Saturday.

Orji also said there is no breakdown of synergy between INEC and the security agencies in the state and noted that he is yet to get any report of ballot snatching or disruption of polls, further corroborating an earlier statement by the police.

He, however, insisted that INEC received a credible report that materials were not allowed to be deployed in the Oba area of the state.