NBA Unity Bar Elections 2022: Some Aspirants Demand for Manual Voting Amid Allegations Of Irregularities And Illegalities
The elections into the elective position in the Abuja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (Unity Bar) have been underway since 9 am today, 9th June 2022.
Whilst a number of eligible voters who spoke to our correspondents reported a seamless and hitch-free voting experience, a good number of others have also condemned some activities during the election process, which they find unsavoury.
Information reaching The Metro Lawyer (TML) from the situation room of the elections is that it is characterised with irregularities and illegalities.
Some of the issues identified by some observers and agents of some of the aspirants are:
1. Unverified voters list
2. No backend to verify votes
3. Over 1 hour 30 minutes time difference between the commencement of voting and live display of votes before the agents of candidates.
4. No explanatory interface between electoral committee, service provider, aspirants and their agents before the commencement of electronic voting
5. No summary of receipt of candidates voted for, after voting online
6. Aspirants for the major offices had their votes static for over 3 hours
7. Massive disenfranchisement of voters as many people could not receive emails despite their incessant complaints. Some claimed this is the email address through which they receive the branch correspondences, but they suddenly cannot receive their election correspondence through the same email address.
8. The consultants were unable to rectify wrong emails.
9. The electoral Chairman had no idea of the voting process and the alleged demonstration of the procedure to the Electoral committee and even had no knowledge of the company providing the services.
10. Eligible voters’ names on the final list were missing on the system yet the alleged number of voters remained the same.
Consequent upon the above and more reasons, some of the aspirants have demanded that the election be cancelled. They suggest that manual voting be used to conduct the election to enable a free and fair process.
More details later.
