The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kwara State, has blamed the unimpressive performance of its candidates in the last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections on “observable flaws” in the conduct of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Chairman of SDP in the state, Alhaji Abdulazeez Afolabi made this observation at a news conference held at the party’s secretariat in Ilorin, the state capital.
Afolabi who was flanked by the gubernatorial candidate of the party, Alhaji Hakeem Lawal, said that the party was yet to either condemn the whole exercise or congratulate those declared winners because of some flaws it had observed in the process.
He added that the outcome of a meeting to be held by leaders of the party on the matter would determine whether the party would officially complain to the INEC or approach court to seek redress .
He appealed to SDP supporters to remain calm and not allow the present situation provoke them into violence, saying that the leadership of the party was on top of the situation and shall not rest on its oars until political justice is achieved.
Afolabi said some of the flaws observed in the conduct of the elections included alleged malfunctioning of Biometric Voters Accreditation System (BVAS),
electronic transmission of results,
creation of additional polling units and late distribution of electoral materials, among others.
“On BVAS, reports from some of our polling agents confirmed that in many polling units, many of the electorate were disenfranchised because the BVAS malfunctioned”, he added.
Olusola Akintonde
