Low voter turnout as Nigeria concludes 2023 general election (Photos)
Story from Kenneth Afor, LAGOS
Haruna Yusuf, Niger
The turn out of the second phase of the 2023 general election was relatively low in major Polling Units (PUs) in the country compared to what was witnessed in the first phase of the election – the presidential and national assembly poll which was held in February 25, 2023.
Neptune Prime reporters in some states across the country observe that low turnout of voters showed up for the Saturday March 18 governorship and state assembly elections.
READ ALSO: Voters stranded over non-availability of election materials in Imo LGA
In some of the PUs visited – 021, 022, 023, 037 at WARD G in Satellite Town, Amuwo-odofin Local Government Area (LGA) in Lagos State, it was observed that Polling Officials (POs) arrived at exactly 10:25am instead of the official 8:30am reasons given was due to some logistical issues they encountered at their rack centres.
Despite the heavy downpour in the early hours of Saturday determine voters still managed to leave their houses to their PUs to cast their votes.
The reconfigured Biomadal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) worked optimally for the purpose of today’s voting exercise – the governorship and states assembly elections.
There were heavy presence of security operatives in the PUs visited.
Elsewhere, in Iku South ward 2 PU 014 in PDP Quarters, in Suleja LGAfew voters turned out to cast their votes as the electoral officers were seen seated idle waiting for the few accredited voters to exercise their voting rights.
The Presiding Officer of the PU, Haruna Ibrahim, said, there is a low turnout of voters when compared to February 25th Presidential election.
“We arrived here by 8am and we started voting by 8:15 am, until an hour later before people started coming out of their houses,” he said.
However, a voter, Mr Ismail Olatunji, a resident in the area said, “It didn’t take me more than 5 minutes to cast my vote because there was no crowd when compared with the Presidential elelection.”
