The group made this known in a post-election press briefing of election stakeholders by the Chairman of CDD’s Election Analysis Centre, Adele Jinadu, and the group’s Executive Director, Idayat Hassan, on Monday.
In its post-election analysis, the think-tank stressed that despite INEC’s improved performance during this round of elections, the perceived questionable credibility of the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly polls diminished trust in INEC as an institution.
Which, according to them, shaped wider perceptions as to the acceptance of the results returned, particularly in races where narrow margins of victory were recorded, or where presidential results were not replicated at the sub-national level.
CDD said its data showed that there were violent occurrences in 10.8 percent of the polling units observed across the country, adding that voter suppression and intimidation, as well as the destruction of ballot boxes, were reported across the six geo-political zones of the country.
“10.8% of observed polling units recorded violence and/or fighting. This was most pronounced in the northwest (19.9%) and south-south (11.6%) geopolitical zones with Bayelsa and Zamfara the two states with the most incidents recorded by our observers.”
The analysis also showed that disruptive activities, voter intimidation before and during the election, had also caused major voter apathy in the country, resulting in the low turnout of voters at the polls on Saturday.
“In the first six hours of polls being open on 18 March, CDD’s war room team came across a flurry of voter intimidation videos, particularly from Lagos State, where it was ensconced in rhetorics about belonging and ethnic identity, an illustration of the ways that voter intimidation took place both online, as well as offline.
“Victims of this violence were first and foremost voters, some of whom were denied the right to exercise their franchise as a result of polling units cancelling results or having their ballot boxes snatched, even though some efforts were made where possible, to hold polls the following day for example.
“But there were also attacks directed at, or threats made toward, ad-hoc INEC staff, with one shot in Cross River and more than ten kidnapped after voting in Imo state, journalists reporting on the election in Lagos, Rivers and Ogun, domestic election observers and other party agents.”
CDD, however, noted that the success of candidates who didn’t belong to the ruling All Progressives Congress or the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party at the polls, could “encourage more splintering and eventual balkanisation of the major parties.”
They further said that with the “scale of violence as seen in the elections, a wave of post-election litigations was likely,” warning that it could lead to the courts deciding and determining the legality of some of the secured mandates, which could further undermine the voters’ sense of electoral value and impact on the election process.
