By Chinonso Alozie

A group, TAF Africa, promoting disability in electoral processes on Sunday said only 80% of Persons with Disabilities were allowed to exercise their priority voting rights in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states off-cycle governorship elections, held last Saturday.

This was contained in a statement signed and made available to newsmen in Owerri, by the founder of the group, Ambassador Jake Epelle.

He said they got the report from the 90 observers sent across the three states of Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa.

According to them, “As part of our commitment to promoting disability inclusion in electoral processes, TAF Africa deployed a total of 90 trained observers across polling units with registered Persons with Disabilities in Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi states. The focus is on evaluating the compliance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with the provision of assistive tools, as mandated by the Electoral Act, and gauging the overall experience of voters with disabilities at the polls.

” TAF Africa presents its findings from observers in the field, transmitted to TAF Africa’s persons with disabilities election hub through our innovative Election Observer App and dashboard.
“In Kogi state, 94% of the thirty polling units show that INEC officials arrived earlier than 8.30 am designated for accreditation and voting to commence.

It was part of their findings that; “Out of the 90 observers deployed in 90 polling units with registered persons with disabilities across the three off-cycle states, it was reported by our observers that 80% of Persons with Disabilities were allowed to exercise their priority voting rights in Kogi State, 75% in Imo State and 67% in Bayelsa State.

“Assistive tools such as braille ballot guide, EC30E PWD POSTERS, and Magnifying Glass were reported to have been deployed in 77% of the thirty polling units we deployed observers in Kogi state. It was deployed at 67% in Bayelsa State while in Imo state, assistive tools were deployed at a percentage of 55 out of the 30 polling units.”

“In Imo state 99% of the thirty polling units registered persons with disabilities display that INEC officials arrived before 8:30 am, while in Bayelsa state, INEC officials arrived earlier than 8:30 am at a percentage of 77% out of the thirty polling units observed. In Imo state, 58% of the polling units observed commenced accreditation and voting at 8:30 am, In Kogi state 78% of the polling units commenced voting between 8:30 and 9:00 am, while in Bayelsa state, 54% of the polling units commenced voting between 8:30 am and 9:00 am,,” they said.