Some voters in Osun state have described the electoral process in the ongoing gubernatorial election as “slow.”
Governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is seeking a second term. He is being challenged by 14 other candidates, including Ademola Adeleke of the PDP and Yusuf Lasun of the Labor Party (LP).
Many voters in Ayetoro, voting unit 003, Itaefun Settlement, Olorunda Local Government Area, told PREMIUM TIMES that they have been standing for hours waiting to vote but were unable to do so.
The council has more than 2,000 registered voters. At 2:15 p.m., more than 300 voters lined up waiting to be served by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials.
“It has been peaceful. The process is very long. They should consider more BVAS for this unit. I have been here for more than four hours,” said Muyiwa Agara, a middle-aged man.
Teniola Kolawole, another voter in line, said the process was boring. She suggested that INEC officials should be more numerous due to the number of registered voters in the unit.
Alalade Sunday, who said she has been on her feet for about three hours, shared the same opinion with other voters. However, she suggested that more voting materials be distributed to satisfy the number of voters in the units.
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“For the next elections they should bring more officials and materials. That will be better,” she said.
Another voter, Odunola Ogun, said that in order to speed up the process, especially at the polling station, the electoral referee should “encourage people to move to a place close to their homes.
“Where I come from is far away. It’s a 15 minute drive from here.”
Meanwhile, one of the five electoral officials on duty insisted that the process is not slow. She said they are using three Bimodal Modal Accreditation System (BVAS) devices. She said that the electronic device to read the PVC should be improved as it took her 10 minutes to vote.