CEM REPORT, ELECTION | Nigerians today will be electing a new leadership at the federal level through a democratic voting process. Every Nigerian registered to vote by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be expected to exercise their right and perform their civic responsibility.
In Lagos, our correspondence in Ifako-Ijaya local government reports that the environment is very calm as the very busy Abeokuta Expressway has zero activity.
The Ijaya/Agbodo registration area with 50 (fifty) polling units started voting hours after INEC set time of 8:30 am.
As of 9:00 am, no electoral officer had left the distribution centre to their respective polling unit. The first set of officers left at 9:11 am, it took another 10 minutes before the second batch left. As of 10:30 am the last vehicle was still seen at the distribution centre preparing to leave.
Voting proper started at about 10:10 am in some polling units, however at 10:30 some units although had the presence of the electoral officer had not started voting.
CEM reports that security agencies are represented at units with large voters number although the environment is peaceful and calm, voters are coordinated in a well-fashioned manner. No form of rowdiness.
The coordination of the voters can be traced to the effectiveness of the BAVS. Accreditation is smooth, those who couldn’t get verified via fingerprint were verified facially.
On turnout of voters, people trooped out in numbers to vote. The majority of the voting populace were young Nigerians who remained patient at the polling units to cast their ballot.
The older generation was not well represented in the units we monitored.
CEM spoke to a woman who said she was under the weather but was out to fill her gas cylinder.
Mostly represented at the polling unit are many In Ejigbo, reports reaching CEM say that voting has started and the area is peaceful and well organised. Some polling units had canopies to provide cover from the sun for both voters and electoral officers
One issue experienced by voters was locating their polling unit. Many of them were not aware of the INCE polling unit confirmation portal and relied on electoral officers and party agents to find their units.
Voting is expected to end at 2:30 pm
