Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Accredited Foreign and Domestic observers has described governorship election of saturday March 18 2023 in Bauchi state as peaceful and credible.
Amb. Charity Erhire,the coordinator of the forum stated this at press conference on Tuesday in NUJ secretariat in Bauchi,
“We observed that the election was conducted in a peaceful and conducive atmosphere and all the political parties that participated in the election have their party agents in most of the polling units especially APC, PDP, Labour party and NNPP.
“There were minor challenges at the polling units like controlling the crowd which the security personnel helped in taking care of.
“However, the election recorded minor incidents of attack at some polling units, but it was resolved amicably,” he said.
According to her, There is no doubt that conducting an election anywhere is never an easy task.
“One of the major contributing factors to the success of any election process is voter education, conduct and availability of voting materials at all designated points.,” She said
Erhire said INEC should emphasize on education,sensitization and mobilization of political parties should do more to educate their followers on the need for proper and orderly behaviors before, during and after election.
The forum also refuted the allegation by the All Progressive Congress (APC) that the governorship and State House of Assembly election was marred with violence, voter intimidation and Ballot snatching, adding that the election was conducted peacefully without any rancor.
It could be recalled that the APC governorship candidate Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar alleged that the governorship was marred with violence in some local government areas of the state, intimidation of APC voters, Ballot snatching and electoral fraud, calling for the cancellation of the governorship election result.