Nigerians began voting on Saturday in delayed governorship polls, weeks after a controversial and disputed presidential election – amid reports of electoral violence and voter disenfranchisement.
A party official was shot and killed in Lagos Saturday during the elections for Nigeria’s new state governors.
“From all over Lagos we are getting distressing reports of voter intimidation, voter suppression. One of our agents was shot and he is dead,” Labour candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, running to be governor of Lagos state, said in a video statement.
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) spokesman Festus Okoye told CNN, “We are collating and harvesting reports from the different states of the federation before we can take a decision.”
Reports of disenfranchisement continued Saturday, as around 6,000 residents of Victoria Garden City in Lagos said their polling station had been moved outside of their gated complex without notice and claimed electoral staff left before a single resident had cast a vote.
The gubernatorial race will be decided in 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states as the ruling party scrambles to regain lost ground in key states.
SOURCE: CNN