Obvious lapses in conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections have called to question the quality of training given to Corps Members who acted as INEC ad hoc staff in the build up to Saturday’s exercise.
At Unit 008 Ward 3, King of Kings Academy, Kabusa, Lugbe-Abuja which comprises four Voting Points and Unit 008A at Lugbe Across, BusinessDay observed that Corps Members could not properly identify the ballot boxes and the positions.
While addressing voters at Unit 008 after INEC officials arrived the venue late, one of the Corps Member erroneously announced that the red ballot box was for Senatorial seat, black for Presidential and green for House of Representatives. This got the voters confused.
It took the intervention of security agents who immediately corrected the INEC official that the black ballot box was for Senatorial, red for Presidential and green for House of Representatives.
The Corps Members were also confused as to what to do with the unused ballot papers until voters prevailed on them to cancel them with ink to render them invalid before taking them to the ward collation centre.
BusinessDay also observed that the ad hoc staff did not enlighten voters on how to fold the ballot paper before dropping it into the ballot box.
“I was one of the first people that voted but mistakenly folded the ballot box outwardly. It was midway into the voting that an INEC official announced that we should not only fold our ballot papers inwardly but should wait for a while to allow the ink to dry to avoid invalid votes,” a voter who identified himself as Kingsley, told our correspondent.
As of the time of filing this report at 7:50pm, sorting was still ongoing at Unit 008, Ward 3, as there were no power generating sets to provide illumination.
However, some voters used the torch lights in their phones to salvage the situation before some car owners put on the headlamps in their cars to help.
“It is a national embarrassment that INEC boasted to the whole world that voting would end by 2pm without an alternative plan of what happens if voting ends at night. As it stands, the INEC officials here don’t even have rechargeable lamps,” another voter, Ahmed Galadima said.
However, attempts to get the reaction of the ad hoc staff proved abortive, as none of them refused to speak with this reporter.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
