UN observer scores Anambra guber election high, says it meets international standards

Anambra gov election met international standards – UN observer

A United Nations (UN) election observer, Jim Oko, has described the just-concluded Anambra State governorship election as being “in line with international best practices.”

Oko, who is the National Coordinator of Nouvel Perspective International, a UN-accredited election observation organisation, stated this in an interview with PUNCH Online at the INEC State Headquarters in Awka on Sunday, shortly after the declaration of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, as the winner of the poll.

The Returning Officer for the election and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof. Edoba Omoregie, had announced Soludo as the winner of the election.

The Professor of Constitutional Law and Governance, Omoregie, said Soludo satisfied all electoral requirements, having won in more than two-thirds of the local government areas across the state.

Oko commended the conduct of the exercise, noting that the process met global democratic standards.

“From all our team observed while moving around the state on Saturday up till now, it has been a very fulfilling experience for us as observers.

“Everything has been conducted in line with international best practices.

“Having monitored elections across several countries, including the United States, which was a high-level exercise, we can conveniently state that everything here was as it should be — peacefully conducted, peacefully collated, peacefully announced, and peacefully accepted. So, we are very glad about this,” he said.

Soludo polled 422,664 votes in the election to emerge the winner, while his closest rival, Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), scored 99,445 votes to place second.

Paul Chukwuma of the Young Progressives Party came third with 37,753 votes, while George Moghalu of the Labour Party scored 10,576 votes. John Nwosu, candidate of the coalition-backed African Democratic Congress, secured 8,208 votes while candidate of the People’s Democratic Party got only 1,401 votes.

Jim Oko UN-accredited election observer, Jim Oko (Photo credit: Dele Ogunyemi)