The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and other civil society organisations have advocated the need for the Federal Government to conduct a comprehensive polling units audit in Ekiti and Osun states to determine their level of preparedness for upcoming elections.
They gave the suggestion At the recent Leadership of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room review meeting of the FCT Area Council Elections and a strategy discourse for the forthcoming off-cycles elections in Ekiti and Osun states held in Abuja.
They said the recent FCT Area Councils elections was a test of the new Electoral Act and new dawn even as they insisted that serious work is what will sustain the current tempo.
Speaking,Convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Eni Obi, said that lessons learnt from the FCT elections was worth reviewing to improve the elections in Ekiti and Osun states.
He cautioned that the balanced electoral space that the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC was creating should rely only on facts and not fiction or insinuations.
Agianpe Onyema of Policy and Legal Advocacy Center,in her welcome address,said no time could be more perfect than now to have a round table and honest discussion on the recently held elections and the forthcoming elections in the light of looming realities and the likely opportunities of our legislations. She posited that before the enemies of democracy take over the electoral space, members of the situation room should have their firm and unanimous position.
Speaking on the report of the FCT elections, Eni Obi said only 14 of the 18 registered political parties fielded candidates for the elections, while seventy-four vacant positions, comprising six Chairmanship, six vice Chairmanship, sixty-two Counsellorship positions were contested by four hundred and seventy-five candidates.
She added that across the six Area Councils of Abaji, Abuja Municipal (AMAC), Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, and Kwali, one million, three hundred and seventy-three thousand, four hundred and nighty two voters are registered. While decrying poor turnout and urban reluctance in the electoral space, Eni said both state and non-state actors will have to wake up and spur the interests of Nigerians to participate more in the electoral process by deepening social trust and other parameters of good governance.
The co-convener of the Situation Room Ugochukwu James Okpe stated that there was widespread malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), a situation that caused the delay in voters’ accreditation in some polling units. He affirmed vote-buying and absolute disregard for priority voting and the use of assistive materials for persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups as captured and provided for in the Electoral Act.
Ogunlade Olamide Martins who represented CAPPA at the engagement noted that ‘‘the new Electoral Act provides a vista of opportunity to re-write the electoral narrative and deliver good governance to Nigeria.
According to him, Ekiti and Osun off-cycle elections is a litmus test to measure the efficacy of our laws and the preparedness of the users and beneficiaries. He mentioned the potential gains of improved public sector governance to Nigerians and called for a proactive response from our election management body INEC.
