Ekiti Guber: CTA Tasks INEC On Functionality Of BVAS To Guarantee Fair, Credible polls.
By Naomisophyblog
With less than four days to the commencement of the Ekiti State governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been tasked by an election monitoring group, the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) to ensure that its workers are fully trained on the operation of the BVAS machines and the election guidelines.
The group said the call became necessary to guarantee a free, fair, and credible governorship election in the state, just as it stressed that parents must not allow their children to be used as political thugs to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the election.
The observation group stated this on Tuesday, in its pre-election report released to Daily Independent, where it also cautioned the security agencies to maintain an atmosphere of law and order to enable the electorates to carry out their civic duties.
The election scheduled for 18 June 2022 will be the sixth election for the governor of Ekiti State.
According to statistics from INEC, sixteen political parties are competing for the votes of eligible voters in 2,445 polling unit, wards to become the next governor of the state.
Ekiti State presently has 988,923 registered voters, according to INEC figures (79,338 more than in 2018). There are 502,906 girls (51%) and 486 017 males included in these figures (49%).
Additionally, INEC has declared that it will provide 3,346 BVAS devices to the 10,269 polling workers throughout the election.
In preparation for the next governorship election, CTA convened a stakeholder conference with participants from many sectors and fields about their electoral roles, where participants were selected from INEC, Traditional rulers, Police, FRSC, NSCDC, Immigration, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Nigerian Youth Parliament Ekiti State Chapter, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Market women’s Association (Iyalojas), Religious bodies, NUJ, Rattawu and citizens.
They discussed their roles in the election, and the security services reassured the public of their readiness.
Before the meeting, the CTA team made advocacy visits to security agencies and important government agencies, including the DSS, the NSCDC, and the National Orientation Agency.
CTA said it launched media sensitization programs to raise citizens’ awareness of the need to vote en masse and to maintain peace and order before, during, and after elections.
CTA will deploy fifty (50) observers to the sixteen Local Government Areas of Ekiti State. These observers will receive training on the Electoral Act of 2022, election observation, and INEC Election Guidelines. The group will also open a Situation Room from Friday 17th July 2022 in Ado-Ekiti to collect reports from field observers throughout the state.
We are concerned that the election is taking place in Nigeria amid a perilous security climate.
The meeting produced the following resolutions, “The political actors must guarantee that his or their acts and statements do not incite violence or unduly inflame the political climate.
“That security authority should provide guarantees and take necessary measures for the protection of voters before and following elections and that voters must turn out in large numbers to exercise their democratic rights by voting for their preferred candidates and avoiding vote-buying.
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“INEC should ensure that its workers are fully trained on the operation of the BVAS machines and the election guidelines to guarantee a free, fair, and credible governorship election.
that parents must not allow their children to be used as political thugs to disrupt the peaceful conduct of elections”.
