The Edo State governorship election situation room of Edo Civil Society Organization (EDOCSO) on Thursday expressed concerns over voter apathy as observed in most voting centres in last Saturday’s gubernatorial election.
The CSOs attributed the situation to lack of confidence in the electoral processes as well as nervousness caused by massive deployment of security agents for the poll.
In a statement jointly issued by Omobude Agho, its coordinator general, and Godspower Okumbor, secretary general, the group described the situation as “worrisome”, adding that it may spell doom for the country’s democratic process.
“Voters’ apathy was observed in most of the polling units across the state, apart from the rains in the earlier hours of the election day that could play a significant role too, a large percentage of citizens which could be estimated to be up to 30 percent of voting class Nigerians have developed cold feet, which is evident in the number of accredited number of voters on that day against the number of last sets of PVCs collected alone before this election.
“It could also be ascribed to total lack of confidence in our electoral processes, the magical malfunctioning of INEC in distorting voting figures after citizens have put in so much efforts, time and personal resources, and maybe fear of the huge number of security personnel deployed for the election”, the statement partly read.
