Ahead of the 2019 general elections, a delegation of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) to conduct credible, free and fair elections in Nigeria.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports General Francis Behanzin made the charge when he led an ECOWAS delegation on a courtesy visit to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) headquarters in Abuja.
Gen. Behanzin said the purpose of the visit was to, among other things, find out about INEC’s preparation for the 2019 general elections and the challenges it was facing, in view of Nigeria’s large voter population of over 80 million.
He described Nigeria as “a very big country”, pledging financial support for the conduct of the elections, while also expressing gratitude to INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu for his contributions to the improvement of the electoral process and sustenance of democracy across the West African sub-region.
He revealed that ECOWAS would be sending 200 observers to monitor the 2019 general elections set to hold in Nigeria.
Head of Political Affairs, ECOWAS, Dr. Remi Ajibewa reiterated the need for INEC to carry all stakeholders comprising political parties, the media, civil society organisations and security agencies along as it prepares for the general elections.
He said INEC should also synergise with the Police to secure the electoral process, and commended the Commission for the conduct of the Osun State Governorship election.
However, he regretted that while INEC did its best, the International Community and Voters feared that security agents might be used to create problems for the electoral process.
In his response, Prof. Yakubu thanked Gen. Behanzin for his kind words and seized the opportunity to explain the Commission’s preparations for the 2019 polls.
He said the Commission had developed, validated and was already implementing its 2017 – 2021 Strategic Plan, the Election Project Plan and had also released the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 General Elections since January 9th, this year.
He said the Commission also carried out the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise that allowed citizens who just turned 18 years and other Nigerians who had never registered the opportunity to do so.
He informed the delegation that over 14.5 million voters were registered during the exercise between April 2017 and August 2018, and that the new figure will be added to the almost 70 million citizens already in the national Voter Register after due processes.
He said the country might have about 83 million voters after the register had been cleaned up.
Prof. Yakubu observed that conducting general election in Nigeria could be likened to conducting an election for the whole of ECOWAS.
He informed the delegation that Nigeria currently has 91 registered political parties out of which 89 will field candidates for various positions in the next year general elections.
He said the Commission works with security agencies under the aegis of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to secure the electoral environment.
Since the general elections will take place simultaneously in all states, he said the security meeting would be cascaded to the states.
