Plateau: LG polls marred by irregularities – Coalition

More reactions have continued to trail Local Government elections held in Plateau State, as a group under the auspices of Plateau State Coalition on Electoral Reforms (PLASCER), on Thursday, said the just-concluded polls in the state were marred by massive irregularities.

PLASCER through its Coordinator, Mr. Nelson Ananze, said in a statement issued on Thursday from the situation room it organised for the polls in Jos, the state capital, observed that the election was characterised by massive electoral misconduct.

It would be recalled that elections were held in 13 out of the 17 councils of the state.

Election did not hold in Jos South, Riyom, Barkin Ladi, and Jos North LGAs, citing insecurity as a reason.

According to Ananze, the situation room observed that, “There were reported cases of malpractice, like ballot paper thumb printing, ballot box snatching, multiple voting, incidences of fake result sheets, and negligible cases of underage voting

“Collation of result was not transparently done as it was discontinued or characterised by absconding of presiding officers,” he said.

The coordinator explained that the situation room observed that results were not announced at the various collation centres, adding that results were later declared even as collation were still ongoing in some areas.

“We observed that announcement of results did not take place in most of the collation centres.

“So, we can’t authoritatively say that the election was transparent even though it started smoothly but it was truncated during collation, announcements and declaration,” he added.

Earlier on Thursday, the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) had announced that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won 11 out of the 13 councils that the election was conducted.