The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), an election monitoring group, has condemned in clear terms the rerun election in Osun State describing the exercise as anti-democratic.
It noted that the number of the incidents recorded during the poll have undermined the sanctity of the vote and the overall credibility of the electoral process.
“we hold strongly the view that the re-run poll of Thursday, September 27, 2018, does not meet up with the minimum standards for free, fair and credible elections,” the CDD said in a statement.
“It falls short of global best practices in democratic elections which Nigeria aspires towards,” it added.
The rerun election is was held at seven polling units, three polling units in Orolu, two polling units in Ife South, one polling unit in Ife North local governments and one polling unit in Osogbo, the state capital where votes were cancelled during the Saturday 22nd September governorship election in the state.
On Saturday, Ademola Adeleke, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), polled 254,698 votes to beat Gboyega Oyetola, the All Progressives Congress (APC), who trailed him with 254,345 votes.
INEC, however, declared the election inconclusive because the margin between the PDP and APC, 353 votes, is less than the number of registered voters, 3,498, in the seven polling units where elections were cancelled.
The director of the monitoring group, Idayat Hassan, said her organisation observed widespread misconduct by security agencies, including intimidation of accredited journalists, observers and even voters of the opposition party.
“CDD field observers deployed to observe the process and ensure its credibility, especially in Orolu and Osogbo LGAs, were intimidated, threatened and in some cases arrested by security forces,” CDD said.
, an election monitoring group, has condemned in clear terms the rerun election in Osun State describing the exercise as anti-democratic.){kind=link}