The gubernatorial election in Anambra has not been as poor as had been anticipated due to the calmness so far reported from all the 21 LGAs.
And contrary to fears that many would not come out to cast their vote due to the threat of sit-at-home by the IPOB even though it was reneged on Thursday, the turnout of voters has been impressive.
However, the major snag against the process is from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC that seems not to have got right its logistics.
There have been widespread reports and anger over malfunctioning of voters’ card readers.
At Isuofia, Aguata LGA and particularly, the polling unit of the APGA candidate for the election, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, report has been so bad that at midday not a single voter had cast a ballot as the card readers could not work.
In the same Aguata at Amesi, the hometown of the PDP candidate, even though the candidate, Valentine Ozigbo had voted, but he expressed serious concern and fears of disenfranchisement of voters as the card reader was also not working well.
From Nri in Anaocha LGA raised the same concern as the card readers had not been functioning properly, delaying voters from casting their ballot.
The environment is calm with friendly security men. There is a reasonable number of them and rightly without arms.
It took more than an hour to capture an old woman who was asked to smile, open her mouth, show her teeth and all that before the system captured her.
At the polling unit of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Chukwuma Soludo, voters in their hundreds are stranded. Not a single person has voted as at f 12:30pm because the biometric machine is not working.
“Not a single person has voted in this polling unit with more than 200 voters waiting to cast their votes,” a voter who was interviewed said.
The INEC official at the polling unit said he has communicated to his supervisor at Awka who said the problem was not peculiar to the polling unit which is located at the Aguata local government area of Anambra State. But some analysts say it could be a plot to systematically disenfranchise the voters.
The election holds in all the 5,640 polling units in the 21 LGAs with over 2.5 million registered voters expected to decide the next governor of the state from early 2022.
Confidence Okwuchi
