Nigeria has complied with Code of conduct in the prosecution of the Presidential and the National Assembly elections, the African Union Election Observation Mission said on Saturday.
The group said though the shift in date of voting afforded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) better preparation for the exercise, delayed arrival of voting materials in some of the visited polling units however remained a spruce of concern.
The group said it has no intention of dictating to the country on its electoral process other than to provide information from what it observed.
Speaking at the Government Secondary School, Area 10, Garki, Abuja polling station, the leader of the team, Hailemariam Desalegn, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia denied that the group was passive in observation activities of the Nigeria election this time.
He said: “African Union Election Observation Mission follows the African Charter for Democracy and Good Governance. We also follow our Charter for Election Observation and Code of Conduct I think this is the basis of this exercise.
‘’Nigeria is part of the African Union and abides to these charters and Code of Conduct.
“We are not behind. We are following the Election Observer Code of Conduct. Where you have not seen and observed a process properly, you don’t need to comment. We had earlier given our observations to the media
“So far, I think we are asking the people of Nigeria as the largest democracy in Africa, to perform their civic responsibility by voting. What happens in Nigeria determines what will happen in the whole continental democratic process.
“We have been given all the necessary information, but we cannot go into judgement before we see what is happening
“This is our Code of conduct it is very strict and we follow it accordingly Those who give their own opinions before getting the necessary information, it’s up to them”.
On what the group’s findings during its visits to some of the polling units, Desalegn said though an atmosphere of peace was observed, late arrival of voting materials and official was an area that should be looked into, going forward.
“Our observation mission has deployed in all the geographic regions of Nigeria and our observation so far is that this election being conducted generally in a peaceful and orderly manner .
“There are some areas that need some attention especially on the delay in the time of commencement of voting. We observed that the exercise was delayed for over an hour before the process began.
“Of course after the delays, it has started in these places. We hope that at the end of the process, the voters will be happy that they gave been given the chance to elect candidates of theor choice.
“Apart from that we have seen that it is going on very peacefully. This is one of the positive things we have seen.
“You know we had been disappointed earlier when the election was postponed but I think that it was worth it with what we have seen so far.
“I think that extra- preparation has helped the process to go on in a peaceful and orderly manner.
“There is one polling station called Nyanya, there are some problems there because of the delay of voting materials.
“The election did not start there until after some time I think that this is one of the hiccups and we hope that INEC is going to solve this problem as expeditiously as possible,” he added.
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