Elections 2019: Situation room says polls were not credible

The Nigeria civil society situation room comprised of 63 organisations that monitored the 2019 elections has said that the polls were not credible.
The coalition said that the incredibility of the last general elections speaks of serious questions about the future of polls in the country and its quality of democracy, The Cable reports.
The body said that prior to the exercises, it issued a threshold document for a credible election to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which pointed out local and international requirements for credible elections in 2019.
The group also said that the elections conducted by INEC failed to meet the threshold for a credible election, adding that logistical and operational challenges marred the credible conduct of the polls, starting with the postponement from February 16 to 23.
It further said that the exercises were militarised leading to voter intimidation and coupled with ballot box snatching.
The situation rooms said that data in the voters’ register as well as results figures declared by INEC contained many irregularities that have not been rectified.
The group also said that in many polling units, there were also differences between the number of accredited voters and the total number of votes.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the February 23 poll, Atiku Abubakar, had said the visa restriction placed on Nigerian politicians believed to have been responsible for undermining democracy in Nigeria by the US State Department validated his claims that the general elections were rigged.
Atiku in a statement on Wednesday, July 24, by his special adviser on media, Paul Ibe, said in the aftermath of the “daylight robbery that occurred on election day”, Buhari’s regime and its allies went into a propaganda overdrive to deny the obvious.