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Voter intimidation, suppression, others marred Nigeria’s elections — CDD

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A pro-democracy group, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has alleged that violence, voter suppression, ballot box snatching and intimidation marred Saturday’s governorship and state house of assembly elections.

The Chairman of the CDD’s Election Analysis Centre, Adele Jinadu, and the Executive Director of the group, Idayat Hassan, stated this in a post-election media briefing on Monday in Abuja.

The group noted that despite the improvement the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made in the conduct of the election, 10.8 percent of observed polling units witnessed violence.

It lamented that the conduct of the elections diminished INEC’s credibility.

The CDD said: “10.8 percent of observed polling units recorded violence and/or fighting. This was most pronounced in the North-West (19.9 percent) and South-South (11.6 percent) geopolitical zones with Bayelsa and Zamfara the two states with the most incidents recorded by our observers.

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“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.”

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