Follow Us on Google
From Magnus Eze, Abuja
Election stakeholders, made up of observer and monitoring groups, under the auspices of the Election Roundtable Expert Group (EREG), have commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its early preparation and the latest innovations being introduced to ensure free, fair and transparent general elections in 2019.
They, however, urged INEC to immediately commence the process of reorganising constituencies and polling units, which, according to them, was long overdue.
These formed part of the highlights of a communiqué issued at the end of a one- day roundtable on overview of elections in Nigeria post 2015, organised by the EREG with support from the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG).
The communiqué signed by ISDMG executive director, Dr. Chima Amadi; ISDMG director of mobilisation, Faith Nwadishi; Ezenwa Nwagwu, for Partners for Electoral Reforms and other CSO leaders like Ledum Mitee, Emeka Ononamadu, Abdul Mahmud, amongst others, lauded the courage exhibited by the INEC Chairman and his commissioners in the discharge of their duties so far, pledging to support the Commission in meeting its mandate and delivering credible elections.
The body cited the recent prosecution of staff of the Commission accused of corruption as having restored more confidence on the preparedness of the Electoral Management Board led by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu in achieving a transparent poll.
The stakeholders further identified delayed budget passage and poor funding, hate speeches and war mongering of politicians during elections, collusion of collation officers to manipulate election results coordination and welfare of security personnel, interference of security personnel in the electoral process as occasioned at the Edo elections, vote buying, voter apathy; violence during elections as some of the challenges bedeviling the Commission and the electoral process.
