BY ENYIM ENYIM

ONITSHA—The Nigeria Civil Society Election Situation Room, a coalition of 40 civil society organisations that monitored last Saturday’s  governorship election  in Anambra State has declared that the election fell short in all standards.

In a statement by the organisation, it noted the poor deployment of materials; inadequacy and incompetence of many polling officials deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, adding that this posed serious concern for the observers.

The leader of the group, Mr. Tunji Lardner who read the statement said: “INEC’s conduct of the governorship election in Anambra State poses serious concerns ahead of the 2015 general elections and the Situation Room calls on INEC to change its strategy with a view to improving on its preparations for the 2015 elections.”

Lardner further observed that the lopsided deployment of election officials and their poor training contributed in a large measure to the failure of INEC to effectively implement logistic arrangements for the election.

While condemning INEC for not embarking on aggressive voter education before the election, the group, however, called on Nigerians to assist in voter education and enlightenment to prevent the mistakes witnessed in the election.

On the issue of missing names of voters in the voters’ register, the group said the issue raised a lot of questions on the electoral process under Professor Attahiru Jega.

He said: “The Situation Room is also concerned and very worried about the gross incompetence of INEC officials charged with the responsibility of distributing election materials. This incompetence manifested in the reported mix-up of the election materials for areas such as Idemili North.’’