Anambra 2025: CTA Faults Absence of Party Agents in Polling Units

Anambra 2025: CTA Faults Absence of Party Agents in Polling Units

…says only APGA deployed 100%, LP recorded 37% presence

JOEL OLADELE, Awka

The Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) has raised concern over the poor deployment of party agents during the November 8, 2025, Anambra governorship election, describing it as a major setback to electoral transparency and credibility.

In its preliminary statement released in Awka on Saturday, the group said findings from its 50 trained observers deployed across the 21 local government areas showed that only the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) deployed agents to all polling units, while the Labour Party managed just 37 percent coverage.

“Political parties and their candidates played a noticeably limited role in strengthening the electoral process. Many of the political parties failed to deploy agents to several polling units, leaving the process largely unmonitored,” CTA said.

The organisation added that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) managed a 93.8 percent presence across polling units but lamented that the overall absence of agents from opposition parties created gaps in transparency and reflected a deeper problem of lack of commitment of politicians to credible electoral practices.

According to CTA, the absence of agents undermined one of the key checks and balances designed to promote fairness in the electoral process. It urged political parties to take election monitoring more seriously.

“CTA charges political parties to actively deploy agents, engage in robust voter education, and take concrete steps to strengthen the integrity and credibility of the electoral process, considering that they are main beneficiaries of the system,” the statement read.

Beyond the absence of party agents, the group noted that the election was largely peaceful despite late arrival of INEC officials and materials in most polling units. About 68 percent of polling units, it reported, opened between 8:25 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., while 31 percent began as late as 10:00 a.m.

The organisation also decried low voter turnout, which it attributed to apathy, security concerns, and doubts about the credibility of the process.

On the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), CTA said the machines worked well in over 80 percent of polling units, though some voters could not be accredited due to technical glitches or missing names on the register.

While commending the professionalism of security agencies, CTA expressed concern about the welfare of deployed personnel, saying many complained of poor accommodation and unpaid allowances.

The group also lamented the brazen nature of vote buying witnessed in several polling units, noting that new methods such as cash transfers and food vouchers were used to induce voters in full public glare.