CLO tasks INEC to review electoral guidelines

Isaac Job, Uyo

Chairman Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Akwa Ibom state, Franklin Isong, has told the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to go back to the drawing board to address the electoral lapses noticed in the 2019 general elections.

Isong stated this on Wednesday in Uyo, while presenting an assessment of the governorship and state House of Assembly election at a media briefing to review the conduct of the poll in the state.

He said all critical stakeholders should close ranks to guarantee free, fair and credible polls in future.

“INEC should return to the drawing board and strategize with a view to addressing the lapses which came to the fore during the conduct of the 2019 general elections in the country in order to deliver free, fair and credible elections in Akwa Ibom state in the future.

“The critical stakeholders in the electoral process such as INEC, security agencies, political parties, civil societies and the press should close ranks and ensure that elections remain free, fair and credible,” he said.

Isong lamented that despite holding series of meetings with critical stakeholders aimed at ensuring that all concerned live up to their responsibilities before the elections, the governorship and state house of assembly polls were marred by irregularities, violence and vote buying.

The Civil Liberty Organisation indicted all the political parties that participated in the elections, including the PDP and the APC of vote buying, adding that it was so common that in some places voters were asked to write their names before voting and collect cash after the voting process

He said that “perhaps, the greatest undoing of the 2019 general elections was the large scale vote buying that pervaded the entire state, before during and after voting proper.

“Cash-for-vote was so pervasive that they were done in the open. Voters were made to write their names before voting and collect the cash after voting. In most cases thugs were fighting over money and sharing formula.

“In Unit 7, at Village Hall, Ikot-Anwanna in Ikono Local Government Area, it was a free for all fight and voting had to be stopped until the voters were paid for voting.

There is hardly any polling unit in the state where votes were not paid for, all happening in the presence of the security men.”

He recommended electoral reforms in the country to address all the lapses associated with the just concluded general elections.