A Civil Society Organisation, YIAGA Africa, on Friday said that there might be low turnout of voters for the local government elections in Lagos state scheduled to hold tommorrow (Saturday) because of low publicity and Mobilisation.
At a press conference in Ikeja, Eze Nwagwu, a board member of the group said that interaction with citizens in the streets 72 hours before the election revealed that the majority of respondents were not aware of the election, adding that there is a huge gap in communication between the Lagos State Independent Electoral (LASIEC), CSOs and election observers.
“Groups who applied for accreditation via the commission’s website as directed waited endlessly for feedback from the commission on the status of the accreditation,” he said.
“The commission ignored all online applications and requested groups to resubmit hard copy applications to its office barely 24 hours before the elections, which impacted planning for observer deployments.
“Similarly, engagement with some CSOs in the state revealed that the commission is not responding to inquiries for updates on the LGA elections”, said Nwagwu.
He explained that there is a possibility of limiting the participation of participants especially observers which, “by extension will raise questions of accountability and transparency by the commission.”
