Voting Ends In Lagos LG Polls As Sorting, Counting Begin
Voting has officially ended in Saturday’s chairmanship, vice-chairmanship, and councillorship elections in Lagos State.
Voting lasted six hours from 9 am to 3 pm, as directed by the electoral umpire, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC).
Voting took place in the 20 local government areas and the 37 local council development areas of the state.
With the conclusion of voting, LASIEC officials moved to the next stage, which is the sorting and counting of the ballot papers in the presence of election observers and party agents, as well as some voters who stayed behind to monitor the process.
At Polling Unit 17 in the Alhaji Masha, Small London of Surulere LGA, LASIEC officials began the sorting and counting at 3:04 pm.
The unit has 1,166 registered voters, but 550 voters showed up to cast their votes.
From the PU level, the votes recorded would be transferred to the ward level and then to the local government offices of LASIEC for eventual collation at the LASIEC head office in the Yaba area of the state.
Fifteen parties were confirmed to have participated in the elections across the state, but low voter turnout marred the election.
Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to Bola Tinubu, who cast his vote in a neighbouring PU at Fowler Memorial School, also in the Surulere area, lamented the low voter turnout and called for increased sensitisation for greater participation in the process for the election of leaders at the grassroots.
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He said, “There is a general low turnout from what I’ve seen. Perhaps because people don’t understand fully the importance of local government elections, which is even more important than any other election.
“We need to sensitise our people. We need to educate them about the importance of grassroots government. But so far, it’s peaceful and quiet. It’s free and fair. There are no skirmishes anywhere, and that’s what we all want for any election.”
