The Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate for the House of Representatives election in the Ogbia federal constituency of Bayelsa, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, has described the February 25 election as flawed.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday in Yenagoa, Mr Iworiso-Markson said there were irregularities in the election’s conduct, expressing surprise that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared a winner.

“Obvious electoral malfeasance” that took place was allegedly perpetrated by some officials of INEC in connivance with security personnel and agents of the ruling party in the state, claimed the SDP candidate.

“The House of Representatives election in Ogbia on Saturday fell short of expectations on so many levels. The late arrival of electoral materials to most polling units triggered a chain of events that resulted in a series of anomalies which comprehensively compromised the integrity of the elections,” Mr Iworiso-Markson explained. “With the late arrival of INEC officials and materials, election proper commenced very late in most polling units, as late as 2:00 p.m. and voting in some polling units continued till late into the night, which gave ample room for manipulations.”

He added, “The late commencement of voting coupled with the doctoring of the BVAS in most of the polling units created heightened tension among willing voters. In ward 11, Unit 7 in my community, the BVAS was already preloaded with 158 votes even when no single vote had been cast. The problem of preloaded votes in the BVAS was not unique to Unit 7 alone. Similar discoveries were later made in some units at Imiringi, Emakalala, Kolo, Akipleai, Ogbia Town, Otuoke, Emadeke and other polling units in several communities across the federal constituency.”

He said regrettably, both INEC and the security agencies on duty failed to stop the fake agents who freely and unashamedly engaged in vote buying for their respective parties, where votes were exchanged for wrappers, machetes, rice and dollars.

“The dollar rain in Ogbia on Saturday was effectively deployed to induce poor hapless voters who already suffer from multidimensional poverty occasioned by years of neglect by the same leaders who seek to continually force themselves on the people,” stressed Mr Iworiso-Markson. “We are calling on INEC to revisit the results entered in favour of the PDP in Otuoke, Imiringi, Elebele and Otusega. We have every reason to believe that results in the aforementioned communities were doctored and skewed to favour the candidate of the PDP.”

(NAN)