OSHA 2023: JDPMC Lauds Process, Commends INEC, Security Agencies

A Non Governmental Organization, Justice, Development and Peace Makers Centre (JDPMC) has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for its improvement in the organization and peaceful conduct of the just concluded March 18 state assembly election.

JDPMC also lauded all the stakeholders in the electioneering process including foreign, International, national and domestic observers for their immense contributions towards the success of the polls.

The group gave the commendation in a post -election report signed by its Coordinator, Rev Fr. Peter Akinkunmi, and made available to newsmen, in Osogbo, Osun State capital.
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In the post-election report, JDPMC said “INEC’s performance in terms of planning and management of elections and the security architecture at the polling units’ level in Osun State is highly commendable.

However, JDPMC also noted cases of voter inducement as a major shortcoming during the course of the election.

The faith based organisation appreciated the EU-SDGN Project that funded the election observation, other partner CSO of the EU-SDGN Project, field watchers, the situation room team, INEC officials, security agents, media and the network of civil society organizations who worked hard for the success of the election.
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“The Osun State March 18 2023 State House of Assembly election observation by the Justice Development and Peace Makers’ Centre (JDPMC) is a continuation of the organization’s strategic observation of the 2023 General election as a whole.

“The aim is to identify and share fundamental indicators in the electoral process which clearly express the evolution pattern of Nigeria as a modern democratic nation-state.

“Our election observation, therefore, tries to generate data that aid the understanding of this state assembly election, not in isolation but a link within the chain of elections in Osun State and in Nigeria as a whole since return to democracy.
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“It is particularly approached in connection with all elections in Osun state that have been regulated by the 2022 Electoral Act: namely the July 2022 Osun Gubernatorial Election, and the February 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

“Consequently it is necessary to bear in mind that our election observation strategy was significantly built around the developments generated from the previous elections both at the stated and national level.

“Thus, the focus of the entire exercise was on the efficiency of INEC and of the state election security architecture, inclusivity and participation of vulnerable populations, the participation and conducts of political parties and of voters and Civil Society, and how such developments shape the credibility of the election and its impact on the evolution of democracy in Nigeria.

According to reports , Just-Watcher Situation Room of JDPMC which was opened on February 18 2023 remained active in gathering and analyzing election and post-election developments from the Presidential and National Assembly election of February 25 2023 as they constitute the pre-election background for the March 18 2023 House of Assembly election election.
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Sequel to this, the Just-watcher Situation Room of JDPMC deployed 106 election watchers to 112 Polling Units across 97 wards in the 30 LGAs of Osun State, backed up by 4 teams of mobile rovers who supervised the watchers across the 30 LGAs of the State.

The Just-Watcher Mobile application was deployed to validate, process and share real time data from all the Polling Units where the Just-Watcher observers were deployed. JDPMC received and shared with partners, the media, INEC and other stakeholders real time reports from the various polling units stretched across the state at different intervals during the election exercise.

Such data before being shared were subjected to thorough credibility test relying on the technological support of the Just-Watcher Mobile Application and data analysis hub of the Just-Watcher Situation Room. The Just-Watcher Situation Room was manned by ten data analysts two monitoring and evaluation experts and a media officer.

It was observed that voting commerce by 8:30 am across Osun State except at PU 20, ward 2 Irepodun LGA, PU 7 Ward 2 Obokun LGA, Ebunoluwa PU 26 Ward 10 Osogbo LGA, PU 11 Ward 8 Ife-North LGA, Ile-eja PU 9 Ward 6 Osogbo LGA areas

Investigation also revealed that voting was delayed in most areas basically due to either of non-configuration, locking or malfunctioning of the BVAS machine. Lll

“All observed cases were resolved within 10 minutes of the arrival of the RATECH. For the purpose of the State Assembly election, it was observed that the Voter Register were not pasted in all PUs except for the torn pieces that were leftovers of the presidential election in some PUs.
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“Also, in many PUs, the Form EC 30 A (1) were pasted while they were missing in numerous others. Generally, a lower voter turnout was observed across the state compared to the February 25th Presidential and National Assembly election.

“The Organization of Polling Units
There was general atmosphere of orderliness in 97% of the polling units with proper spacing to allow for the Open-secret Balloting.
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JDPMC considers the March 18 2023 state assembly election in Osun to be a commendable improvement on February 25th, especially with the functioning of the BVAS and the election security architecture up till the end of voting. INEC’s performance in terms of planning and management of elections and the security architecture put in place at polling units.

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