Tina Amanda
The 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections in Rivers State last Saturday, recorded a massive turnout of voters across various areas including the Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor, and Ikwerre local government areas of the state.
Our correspondent reports that although voter turnout was high, some polling units had issues with BVAS malfunctioning which delayed the accreditation and voting process.
This delay was witnessed in some polling units in Obio/Akpor such as Oroigwe Ward one unit 7, where voting started at about 10:45 am, and Ward 1 Unit 10 Oroigwe, where voting started at 1: 05 pm.
Also, Mgbuesilaru ward 2, polling unit 002 started the voting process at about 2: 24 pm due to a dysfunction with the BVAS machine. The same situation was witnessed in Ward 3 Unit 6 Ikwerre LGA, while in Ward 3 Unit 7 there was no election due to the BVAS issue.
However, the election was relatively peaceful except for some polling units that witnessed hijack of ballot boxes and voters disenfranchisement due to their refusal to vote for a particular political party.
In an interview, some voters urged INEC to improve more on the voting system where people can vote from their comfort zones to totally eradicate electoral violence.
Some voters also commended INEC for introducing the BVAS machine which made the voting process peaceful, as there was no record of the killing of the electorates or INEC officials during the election.
