The Executive Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), Lande Arogundade, has said women and persons with disabilities (PWDs) participated actively in Saturday’s Ekiti State governorship election despite minor operational challenges recorded by election observers.

Speaking at a press briefing held at the Afe Babalola Civic Centre in Ado-Ekiti, Mr Arogundade said women played significant roles as polling officials, party agents and voters.

He said 158 women, representing 58 per cent of polling unit officials observed, served as election officials, while 87 women acted as party agents. He also noted the visible presence of women in voting queues across the polling units monitored.

Mr Arogundade said situation reports from about 100 observers deployed to 88 polling units by the Gender and Election Watch (GEW) of the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) indicated that women, who constitute 51 per cent of the voting population, recorded relatively high participation despite minor operational challenges.

“Two minor incident were recorded in Polling Unit 6, Ward Ifaki II, Ido/Osi Local Government Area where a nursing mother was initially denied priority vote at Polling Unit 13-14-04-010, Erinwa I Ward, Ise/Orun Local Government Area, and Polling Unit 13-10-10-04, Ward 10, Ikere Local Government Area where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) had some difficulty in capturing the biometrics of elderly voters,” he said.

He added that observers reported significant participation by persons with disabilities (PWDs) with no major incidents of harassment recorded during the election.

According to him, accessibility measures were evident with 89.9 per cent of polling units physically accessible, priority voting observed in 80.6 per cent of the polling units and assistive voting devices provided in 71.4 per cent of the polling units monitored.

However, he noted that accessibility challenges were observed in some polling units, including Units 003, 016 and 033 in Ado Ward C, Unit 013 at Ola-Oluwa Muslim Grammar School, Unit 202 at AUD Primary School, and Polling Unit 033 in Ijigbo, Ado-Ekiti.