Voters in Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC of the Federal Capital Territory, say poor preparation by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and lack of proper training of its adhoc staff contributed to the delay and setbacks witnessed across major polling units during the Area Council election.
Our correspondents who monitored the election in Garki, Karu, Karshi and other locations report that voters did not however turn up in some polling units to exercise their franchise.
In Bwari Area Council, malfunctioning of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, slowed down the voting process at even as turn out of registered voters was significantly high.
Many of the voters who were unhappy about the malfunctioning of the BVAS across the 10 wards of Bwari Area Council called for cancellation of the exercise in those areas.
Earlier, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in OSUN State, Abduganiyu Raji, who monitored the election in Bwari told ait.live that 40 BVAS were on standby for replacement in the event of a malfunction.
Meanwhile, as at 9:20am in Tokollo Ward 002 Polling Unit under Igu ward in Bwari Area Council, accreditation and voting were yet to commence due to the late arrival of election materials and officials.
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Eleven political parties are contesting the chairmanship position with nine male and two female candidates while eight parties fielded 56 candidates for the 10 councillorship seats with six being female and 50 male.
And in Gwagwalada Area Council, the malfunctioning of BVAS was also identified as the greatest challenge in the FCT area council elections..
At polling units 017 and 018 located in Tugan Maje ward, about 1,328 registered voters were expected to vote but as at 12 noon, only two voters had cast their votes due to the malfunctioning of the BVAS device.
There was a large turnout of voters at the LEA Primary School in Tugan Maje, but the BVAS did not also function properly.
The security situation in all the places visited was notably calm and peaceful.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
