Why Election Started Late In Edo- –INEC REC

Eromosele Ebhomele/Benin

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Edo, Kassim Gaidam, has admitted the commission’s failure to meet its deadline for the commencement of the governorship election in Edo on Saturday attributing it to traffic problems.

The battle for the seat is between two leading contender, Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Maj. Gen. Charles Airhiavbere of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Gaidam, who was speaking about hitches in the election and several complaints minutes ago, said the INEC had been prepared for the exercise but “the materials arrived later than expected because of some traffic problems.”

He said as a result of the delay, INEC re-strategised to ensure that such affected areas would vote between one and two hours beyond voting time which is supposed to be 4pm.

P.M.NEWS checks revealed that in some places, voting has ended while in other areas, voting was still in progress as at the time of this report.

Most of the voters in the had complained about late arrival of materials to their polling units while in some other units, there were no materials at all as at 12pm when accreditation was supposed to have ended.

The situation was worse in Oredo area of Benin City, the Edo State capital, which is just 10 minutes’ drive from the INEC office in the state.

It was learnt that election materials for the area which has one of the highest number of voters and believed to be the governor’s stronghold, were not delivered till the governor raised an alarm.

The governor, who voted at his Iyamho village, immediately moved to Benin after publicly complaining about the situation and calling the Chairman of INEC a fraud.

“That this is only one state election and INEC is wobbling is shameful.

“Professor Jega can’t vouch for his lieutenants and this is worrisome.

“In the heart of Benin, just few minutes before the INEC headquarters, materials had been distributed as at this morning, but just to move them to the voting units which is just 10 to 15 minutes drive has become a problem,” the governor said, confirming reports that many people turned up for the election but found that their names were not on the voters’ register.

“We did ask them to display the register and they said they were doing it for security reasons. If they had displayed it, we would have been able to see all these weaknesses here and there,” he added.