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An election monitoring group, the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, on Saturday released its preliminary reports, identifying late commencement of polls, glitches in the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines among other operational deficiencies that characterised the Presidential and National Assembly elections .

The Chairperson of CDD’s Election Analysis Centre, Prof. Adele Jinadu, who spoke to journalists in Abuja, said, “Our observer data indicated late arrival of poll officials to their respective polling units across the country on Election Day.

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“The average opening time across the country was 9:25am; that is a clear one hour after polling was scheduled to start.”

Speaking on the functionality of BVAS, CDD said its observation showed that in some cases various glitches during the accreditation process, contributed to delays in voting in certain places.

“On the whole, we commend Nigerians on their participation and peaceful conduct so far, although we note growing reports of voters frustrated by the speed of the voting process,” Jinadu said

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He also identified violence and voter suppression in some parts of the country as issues that affected the elections.

CDD said it also observed that the imbalance in the distribution of voters to new polling units affected the effective management of polling units.

Nevertheless, Jinadu said CDD commends the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over what he described as their continued responsive communication with voters and all key stakeholders.

(Vanguard)

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