It also claimed that political parties induced voters with money.
The IEMG made the submissions in a preliminary statement on its evaluation of the poll, which was signed by its National Coordinator, Mr. Festus Okoye and the Coordinator for Southsouth Zone, Anyakwee Nsirimovu.
The statement said: “The voters register is still padded and additional and substantial work must be done by the Commission to make the voters register credible.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission must review its operational strategies and methodologies ahead of the 2015 elections.
“It must review its logistics in terms of understanding the geography and terrain of each state. It must review the operations of its offices in the various Local Government Areas and carry out a comprehensive audit of its offices and personnel.
“ It must review its mapping of constituencies and flashpoints and synchronize same with the reform of the electoral framework for the conduct of elections. It is embarrassing that logistic challenges have been a recurring decimal in all elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission since the 2011 elections.
Although it said the elections were peaceful, it asked INEC to address its perennial logistic challenges.
The statement added “The elections were generally peaceful. The actual voters conducted themselves well. Most of the voters understood the voting process and stayed on to witness the accreditation, voting and declaration of results of the election at the polling units.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission must solve the perennial challenge of late arrival of election materials and deployment to some polling units. “The late arrival of materials and election officials in some Local Governments and wards creates serious security challenges and diverts attention from the overall progress made in other polling units and Local Governments.
“The various Political Parties must reform their ways and encourage the voters to vote in accordance with party programs and policies. It is brazen and irresponsible for Political Parties to be patrolling polling units on Election Day purposely to corrupt the electoral process.”
The Election Monitoring Group however said contrary to general claim, there was low turn out of voters on Staurday.
It added: “On the surface the voter turnout appeared to be high but a proportion of those at the polling units were not registered voters and were only at the polling units to await the arrival of representatives of some of the political parties that were financially inducing both registered voters and those malingering in some of the polling units.
“Some of the voters with their voters’ cards could not locate their names on the voters register. Some of them who registered in 2011 did not revalidate their registration during the revalidation process in 2013 and could not find their names on the voters register.
“ Others had their names omitted in the process of separating the registers and creating additional voting points. This cut off the alphabetical sequence of the registers and the excision of some names from the voters register.
“While many people turned up at the polling units, the number of persons on the voters’ registers and those that submitted themselves for accreditation did not add up. In general, there was low voter turnout while so many people were hanging around the polling units because some of the Political Parties were inducing the voters at the precincts of the polling units.
“Logistics and operational challenges bogged down the operations of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Idemili North and Idemili South Local Governments. This led to confusion and the ordering of the r-run of the elections in 65 polling units in Obosi ward in Idemili North Local Government.
“Some of the Political Parties openly and brazenly induced voters at the precincts of the polling units. They shared money openly and did not care who was watching.
The restriction of movement in and out of Anambra State created hardship for travelers and those plying Federal Highways to other States.
“The independent National Electoral Commission must intensify voter and civic education ahead of the Governorship election in Ekiti State and the 2015 General Elections. The turnout of persons at the polling units on Election Day did not correlate with the number of persons on the voters register and those that carried out accreditation.”
It faulted the military and police siege on Anambra State.
The IEMG said: “Elections in Nigeria must be made a routine matter as the armada of arms and military and police personnel deployed for the conduct of elections in Nigeria gives the impression that Nigeria is in a war situation.
“In future elections involving one State, the Police and the security agencies must create safe corridors in Federal Highways to allow for the movement of persons and goods.
“ Total lockdown of a State for two days on account of a Local Election hurts the economy and creates hardship for the people of the State and people in contiguous States.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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