Contrary to forecasts in the build up to Ekiti State governorship election, voters, yesterday, trooped out to elect a new governor, in an election adjudged to be largely violence, hitch-free.
That notwithstanding, the exercise was characterised by rejection of many voters, including the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Olusola Eleka, who was initially not recognized by the card reader.
Also apart from the card reader failure, missing names of prospective voters on the list, massive voter inducement also featured prominently.
Residents started arriving voting booths across the 16 local councils of the state as early as 6:30am, where they queued for the accreditation, which did not commence in many centres at 8am as promised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Specifically, in both Ado and Ikere Ekiti, voters arrived the voting centres as early as 6:30am to await the arrival of INEC officials, as well as, voting materials.
Interestingly, some security personnel also arrived some polling units as early as 6:45am.
At Polling Unit (PU) 007-Ofamofuru, Okereku, Ikere Ekiti, which is the polling unit of the state’s Deputy Governor and PDP’s candidate, Eleka, and others across the senatorial district, the large turnout of voters was unanticipated, considering the tension that consistently mounted in the state in the last one week.
In the entire Ado and Ikere Ekiti, the exercise was relatively peaceful.
However, By 11:00am, an alleged acid bath of a party agent in Ado-Ekiti, and rumour of planned attack on Okereku, led to the reinforcement of security personnel in the area before the arrival of the PDP candidate.
Malfunctioning card readers helped in lengthening the period for accreditation to between three to five minutes in some cases, thereby slowing down the pace of the electoral process.
This led to scores of voters being stationed under the scorching sun for hours in voting centres like, units 003, 006 and 007 in Ikere-Ekiti.
In 006, one of the card readers was not working at all.
