Soludo arrives polling unit and waited for upwards of 30 minutes without being able to be accredited, and time keeps ticking
The polling unit of the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chukwuma Charles Soludo, is still not up and running. The technology of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed at that polling unit and many other polling units across the state.
Soludo arrived at his polling unit at about 12:15 PM and as at almost 1 PM, he could not be accredited, like many other voters who have been impatiently waiting since 8:00 AM.
At Soludo’s polling unit, there are almost a thousand people. And as about 1 PM, not more than 10 people have voted at the polling unit, creating the fear that many could be disenfranchised.
Soludo, in expressing his frustration, said: “The technology is a complete failure. By 12:30 PM, voting is yet to start in most of the polling units in the state. Technology that ought to take seconds to accredit voters is taken 20 minutes for one person. You don’t need to be a mathematician to know that is a problem,” he said.
Soludo also added: “There is also the inadequacy of INEC staff. In some polling units, there are no INEC officials. There is also the absence of security officials at some polling units, including here,” he said.
Election stats
The elections are holding in 5,640 polling units across the 21 Local Governments and 326 wards of Anambra State
Anambra originally has 4,608 polling units, but INEC created an additional 1,112 for the purpose of this election. 86 polling units have no registered voters; hence, elections won’t be taking place there.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says 2,525,471 registered voters would be participating in the election.
Security deployment
The Nigerian Police Force deployed announced that it would deploy more than 34,000 personnel outside those serving in the state for the election.
Apart from the police, the military, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service and other paramilitary agencies deployed personnel for the election.