LASUSU '19 Election: An Observer's story. By Charis Kings

The student union election which was conducted and concluded today appeared to be generate different views from different categories of both participant and observers.

The voting was purely electronic, students were completely impressed. Some even dared to say LASU is one step ahead of Nigeria as a whole, simply because Nigeria hasn't ventured into complete E-voting. Perhaps they were right?.

The E-voting platform was indeed a development and a big step forward into a new age of technological advancement for the school electoral processes. Although the voting process was safe, easy and transparent the electoral processes at the 30th LASUSU elections was not without it's inadequacies and reportable activities.
At exactly 12:05pm I arrived at the faculty of education, the faculty's main entrance seemed rather quiet with student rather normal, like every other day.

Many students could even be sighted hanging around the walkway though scantily but anyone simply observing that part would not have been aware that there was any election going on on the inner parts of the faculty. The polling centre used was the computer room at the faculty of education, upstair and the turnout was massive.

The hallway was literally crawling with students as students were everywhere. The students present were all intending voters but amongst them were agents.
The agents present seemed to intentionally go against all electoral code of conduct and decide that it would be precisely at the electoral grounds that they would start campaigning. Their campaign generated alot of uproar arguments and even confusion on the faces of students as they were pushed, pulled and stopped by 'agents' just so they could tell them about their own candidate. It was a total waste of effort because many students had already made up their minds on who they would pick for specific posts.

At least they weren't bribing students with cash as they were at faculty if sciences. Some students displayed some level of loutish behaviour by openly tearing up papers of agents of candidates from other faculties. They didn't allow agents of candidates like intellectual, Gbemi Gs and Co to raise a banner of support or carry on with the same electoral malpractice they were carrying on too!.

Senior students from the faculty expressed their disappointment saying that was the same behavior the students from education exhibited too. It took a staff, an IEC observer to ban all campaign at the site of voting. Suprisingly they listened, his name undisclosed.

The queue for entry was rather disorganized and rough. Most students blame the rowdiness on the late starting of election. A student of health education Timileyin 200L said the line would have been better organized if the marshals and electoral officers had arrived earlier than the students. I observed the rough arrangements and how the Marshal's were trying their possible best to curtail the disorderliness even going as far as threatening to arrest the students and some were even assaulting students who weren't in the line.

There was one gunman present (who said he was too busy to grant me an interview) although he didn't raise his gun at any student, I felt the presence of the gun at all was completely unnecessary because the male students weren't moved by the gun and the female students didn't bulge. The female students were most uncomfortable with all the tossing and pushing about it too a lot more to get them relatively calm. A student suggested that the lines be divided into two and somehow the marshalls did just that and the line moved more smoothly.
The same way the students had difficulty moving ahead in the line at first was exactly the same way it was difficult for me as an observer to get through.

The gunman and a senior officer didn't seem to care whether I was an observer or not. I had to call the attention of the senior staff that cleared up the campaign issue with the students to help me in getting through. Immediately I got inside I was told I had just minute to spend inside, I made good on it by questioning the electoral officer Manning the door.

I asked him about the turn out by the students, he said the student turned out fine to carry out their duties, he couldn't give me an exact figure for the amount of students accredited because the expected turn out for education could not be numbered being the faculty with the highest number of students. He also told me about the security personnels that they had at their faculty. One gunman and about three unarmed marshalls.

Also inside the voting room were agents again but this time they were sitting rather quietly holding papers indicating whom they were. They told me they were allowed inside but weren't allowed to speak. I reminded then again that electoral campaign should not be happening.
The other staff seemed busy attending to incoming students telling them how to do what becuase it was obvious students were confused on entry. After their identification cards were scanned and verified they went on to generate tokens which was in turn used as their voting pin's and their matriculation number to be used to vote. The explanation was brief though but students seemed to understand.

Although easy but clearly if they had been prompted and educated about how to vote some considerable time and effort would have been conserved. A student named moyinloluwa agreed by saying students should be made properly aware about these processes before the school ventured into such.

The brief visit into the accreditation and voting room ended there. I stepped out questioned a few students and majorly all they could say was the process was easy and they would expect a fair result.
The President of student anti-corruption vanguard also gave his view on the state of the electoral processes. He said the election was easy, non violent and open, although they started late but students massive turnout covered up for it.

His associate Gabriel F. O popularly known as Tbyte concurred with the same report but he had something to say about the rude and rough way the marshalls treated and bullied the students especially the female ones.

Mr momodu saliu a staff was whom I was redirected to by the marshals for an interview, I asked him if it was proper for the officers to threaten the student and harass them. He said No but if the student disobeyed them or the school laws, the marshalls could take any action they desired. I called his attention to some students drinking alcohol around, especially agents he said the marshals would handle the whole scenario which they didn't because apparently it was happening at their blind spot and they needed students to assist them in fishing out culprits.

All in all the election was a total success and hopefully the voice of the people prevailed and no extreme display of violence were recorded.

Over at the faculty of science the electoral process appeared to be going far more smoothly on the inside. The election took place at Benson hall and the election commenced early, as early as 11 o'clock AM. On arrival to the voting premises, quite a number of students could already be seen outside waiting in line to enter to vote. The dedication was impressive.

A few students on ground were only present to observe, unofficially. Others were either agents or simply voters. There was no discrimination for agents campaigning for candidates from other faculties unlike faculty of education.The agents outside were relatively fewer but no less quiet. They walked in too cast their votes and walked out peacefully. Some students reported that bribes were given to since candidates in a desperate last minute attempt to buy the votes of students.

The electoral officials and Marshall at the entrance didn't hesitate in letting observers into the voting arena, they seemed more inclined to understanding the freedom of the press. Once inside I went ahead to questioning the lady in charge of the registration. She spoke freely with me about the turnout of students and the calmness of the whole process, apparently students were now compliant with the officials on this side of the school.

I personally assisted in the electoral process by directing and teaching students the little I've learned about the process. The process moved really fast with about 4 laptops and a volunteer's phone which I handled at a point. Students were also mandated to vote before they were allowed to leave the premises of Benson hall, whether on their phones, the systems or the volunteers phone.

The voting process at sciences started from a waiting line then to an accreditation unit for ID cards which took them further in the pin token generatio, the registration then their casting of votes. I also observed that from the look of the registration file, only quite a handful of 100 level students were actually present to vote.

Majority voting were 300 level and 200 level students
Whether it was the presence of one gunman and about 5 other marshalls at the centre or just the students conscious mindset to be orderly, either one, the election was smooth and easy sy the faculty if science. Hopefully the results announced wouldn't cause any post violence whatsoever.