Ahead of FCT Area Councils Election 2022, Princess Hamman-Obels/Founder and Director, The Electoral Hub has called on security agencies to protect, safeguard voters, election workers and election materials.
She made the call, in a statement made available to newsmen.
Below is the full text of the statement.
PRE-ELECTION STATEMENT ON THE 2022 FCT AREA COUNCIL ELECTIONS
The Electoral Hub, an organ of the Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development (IRIAD), is set to observe the area council elections scheduled to hold in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Saturday, 12 February 2022.
For the past six weeks, we have been monitoring the electoral process and engaging the public. The following are some of the activities we have conducted:
• Research and production of a political context analysis of the election.
• Production of a factsheet on the Abuja Municipal Area Council.
• Engagement with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
• Sensitisation drives in various areas of the FCT to raise awareness about the upcoming elections.
• Organising an electoral civics training to reignite active citizenship and encourage Nigerian youth to vote.
• Production of infographics and posters to educate voters on key things about the elections.
• Deployment of observers across the FCT.
Ahead of the election, we urge stakeholders to take collective action to promote integrity and credibility. In particular, we expect the following:
• INEC should monitor and supervise the elections at the Commission level, providing quick response to any identified issue. This can be done through the use of a virtual situation room.
• Ad hoc staff and other election workers should perform their roles efficiently, ensuring that key principles such as equality of vote, secrecy of vote, and transparency of the electoral process are upheld.
• Political parties and their candidates should uphold peace on election-day and refrain from participating in electoral malpractices such as vote buying.
• Security agencies should safeguard election workers, voters, election material, and the general election environment. They should also arrest and prosecute electoral offenders.
• Civil society organisations and election observers should be vigilant, keep the electorate informed, and highlight irregularities, if any, on election day.
• The media should keep the public informed about the events on election day.
• The electorate should come out to vote in their numbers, and refrain from selling their vote.
We are confident that combined action from these various stakeholders will yield effective results, and we look forward to a peaceful, transparent, and credible election come February 12.
Signed
Princess Hamman-Obels ; Founder and Director, The Electoral Hub
Phone: +234 9121551331 and +234 9086998850
Email: electoralhub@gmail.com and electoralhub@electoralhubng.org
Twitter: @electoralhub; Instagram: @electoralhub; Facebook: @electoralhubng
Websites: https://www.iriad.org and https://www.electoralhub.iriad.org
