By: NyimaSillah
The Elections Watch Committee (EWC) report has indicated that the just concluded councils’ by-electionwas held peacefully with no restrictions and violations of rights.
Speaking to reporters, NdegenJobe, Deputy Speaker of the National Youth Parliament, said: “the Elections Watch Committee received report that Covid-19 protocols were largely not followed by the IEC officials and voters.
According to her, the report indicates low levels of messaging and adherence to Covid-19 health safety protocols during the campaign period as well as on elections day.
“EWC observed that all eligible voters were allowed to vote as mandated by the IEC regardless of not adherence to the Covid-19 safety protocol. “For the 14th May elections, EWC observers noted inconsistent adherent to Covid-19 safety protocols and lower abidance to measures as compared to the National Assembly Elections,” she said.
However, she revealed from the report that 30% of elections watch observers noted that IEC officials wore face masks throughout the day, all voters wore facemasks in only 2% of observed polling streams. In 49% of the stream, none of the voters wore facemask and only 30% of polling streams observed by elections watch observed had sufficient social distancing throughout the day.
She said during voting, closing process, the elections watch observers reported some incidents that occurred at their assigned stream that four incidents related to disagreements between party supporters over canvassing for votes at the polling station, adding “no incidents were serious or severely disrupted the election process.”
“Utilize prescribed legal process to pursue any complaints or grievance, for future elections, ensure that party agents were trained on election procedures and understand their role in observing the voting and counting process. To the IEC, ECW recommend publicly polling stream level results in a machine-readable formal in a timely manner as a measure of transparency. This includes the results from the presidential and National Assembly election which have still not been published on the IEC’S Website, clarify and communicate collation procedures and locations in a timelier manner to ensure observers are able to fulfill their role in observing all the process,” she continued.
“Ensure all polling locations are accessible to all voters, particularly the elderly and persons with disabilities. To the Media, EWC recommends media to demonstrate professionalism in its reportage and ensure citizens continue to receive accurate information, and to Security Forces: EWC recommends them to continue to demonstrate neutrality and professionalism in dealing with electoral related matters.”
