Lasu Communication Students Lament Delays in Voting, Report Issues of Voter Suppression

By Ogunlaja Oluwafemi 

The 34th Lasusu elections took place on November 1, 2023, across various faculties at Lagos State University. However, there were notable delays in the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, where the polling unit for communication experienced a late start due to a network glitch.

The elections, originally scheduled to begin at 10 am, did not kick off until a few minutes before 2 pm. This delay left voters standing for hours without any seating arrangements or shade, and it led to a significant crowd gathering around the faculty, resulting from poor crowd management.

Hon. Mukandas Abímbólá, the Speaker of the Faculty, explained that the late start was due to network issues but assured everyone that there were sufficient personnel on hand to quicken the voting process.

This delay frustrated many students within the faculty, with some expressing their annoyance and stress over the situation. One student, Fisayo, stated, "I've been waiting for about 2 hours, and they haven't started."

Another student, Al-amin, called the delay useless and criticized the authorities for making voting mandatory while keeping students waiting, stating, "They made it mandatory for us to vote, and they are still wasting our time. Time is money."

Agents volunteered their phones for the E-Voting to ease the stress of voters when the voting process started to hasten the process, However,  there were reports of issues related to collecting voter tokens and the agents voting on behalf of others, particularly for those who couldn't access the voting website on their phones. 

Kachi, a student of the faculty witnessed a disagreement that ensued between another student and an agent of one of the candidate. She explained how the student was logged out due to her insistence on voting for her preferred candidate. She expressed her dissatisfaction with the situation and how the student was denied the opportunity to vote for her preferred candidate.

The voting process came to end at around 5pm in the evening, a few minutes before the results were announced