The Lagos State chapter of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, has described the conduct of the state bye-election as peaceful, free, and fair.
The IPAC, nonetheless scored the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, low on low on voter education, mobilisation hinting that the electoral umpire needed to do more on voter education and mobilisation to deepen the country’s democracy.
Femi Olaniyi, the Chairman of IPAC, scored the electoral umpire low following poor voter turnout at Saturday’s Lagos East Senatorial and Kosofe Constituency II House of Assembly by-elections.
Olaniyi, who is Lagos State Chairman of Social Democratic Party, SDP, however, described the conduct of the election as peaceful, free, and fair.
He said: “The total turnout was very low, INEC has not done very well in terms of sensitisation and voter education regarding these by-elections in Lagos State.
“The percentage of people that turned out for these elections is abysmally low, far below 25 per cent of registered voters.
“This is not highly encouraging at all, and we need to do more.
“We urge INEC to really work diligently in sensitisation of electorate, working with civil society organisations, political parties, and every other agency that can reach out to the grassroots.”
On reasons for the apathy, Olaniyi said that many voters still believed that their votes would not count, while some politicians had dashed the hope of others.
He urged the opposing parties to accept the election results in good faith while preparing for future elections.
The IPAC Chairman noted that political parties that had been in government usually did well in elections because they had the financial muscle to prosecute the process.
“There is no financial capability from any source to boost the performance of smaller opposition parties in elections. Before now, INEC used to finance agents aspect of of elections which was stopped.
“I think INEC should go back to the record and start doing the needful. INEC has to sponsor parties so as to be able to pay for their agents,” he said.
According to him, smaller parties in most cases could not even finance party agents across all polling units in the election, and consequently, could not tell what happened in those polling units.
It was reported that less than 10 per cent of total registered voters in most polling units came out to exercise their franchise on Saturday.
In the Kosofe Constituency II House of Assembly bye-election, out of 280, 363 total registered voters, the total votes cast was 15,124.
Earlier on Sunday, the INEC declared Mr. Tokunbo Abiru and Femi Saheed, both candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as winners of Lagos East Senatorial and Kosofe II bye-elections, respectively.
