Why SDP Agents Couldn’t Monitor 1500 Polling Units During Presidential Elections – Chairman

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ogun State has alleged that the party could not monitor elections at 1500 polling units during the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections.

At a press conference held by Ogun state SDP chairman, Yinka Ola Williams in Abeokuta earlier today, the chairman claimed that the party could not supervise elections in those polling units because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to supply adequate polling agent identification tags.

According to the SDP chairman, over 75 percent of the SDP polling agents were not able to access the tags which prevented them from monitoring the election.

He claimed that some LGs, including Ifo, Sagamu, Ipokia, and Ogun Waterside, took longer than expected to provide the polling agents’ tags.

He also claimed that INEC did not respond to the party’s letter sent through the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Niyi Ijalaye, and the electoral body did not do anything to fix the problem.

He said, “On Election day most of our agents were driven away. What is even more annoying is that in a local government when we are supposed to have 173 agent tags, only 90 were given to us. On the day of the election we realized that, out of 90 tags given to us, only 20 were useful because they bear the code of other States.

“Even our agents with tags carrying SDP, are still not allowed to monitor the election. Out of the ones they gave us, we saw tags of APC, PDP, and other parties. We don’t want to say that, it was deliberate on the part of INEC to stop our members from monitoring the election.

“As a party, we have the right to monitor the election. Every party has the right. If the majority of our agents cannot monitor what happens on Saturday it is not good.”

To prevent a repeat in the gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections on Saturday, March 11, the party urged INEC to fix the problem.

INEC’s reaction

In response to the SDP’s allegations, Ogun state INEC REC, Niyi Ijalaye, said the issue was brought about by the party’s inability to provide the entire names of its polling agents during the online registration procedure.

All political parties, according to Ijalaye, were affected by the tags issue because “not a single party submitted the full complement during the online registration.”