Anambra Residents Lament Inability To Vote

Residents in the Capital City of Anambra State have lamented their inability to vote following inadequate provision of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System allocated to polling units with large crowds.

THE WHISTLER at about 1:11 pm observed that many polling units in Amawbia and Agu Awka had an overwhelming turnout with long queues of dissatisfied voters who decry the slow system of the exercise.

In Pulling Unit (PU) 008, Agu Awka 1 ward of the state, residents were seen lined up under the scorching sun as others sat along the wayside waiting for their number tag to vote.

INEC officials in this PU arrived at about 10 am to attend to the 2,470 voters registered to exercise their franchise.

However, in Agu Awka Ward, Market 1, Polling Unit 005, a brewing tension was observed after many voters agitated the conspiracy to disenfranchise voters.

Officials of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) were said to have arrived at about 8 am but did not commence accreditation until 11 pm.

The polling unit with a total of 1,671 registered voters had only one BVAS which was gathered to have been changed in the early hours of the day allegedly due to malfunctioning. The officials had to send for another.

As of 1:48 pm, the voters had begun to agitate after three voters angrily left the polling unit having stayed unattended to since the early hours of the day.

Voters were seen stating their grievances, noting that voting was mandatory disenfranchisement will not be acceptable.