15 days to the Ondo State Governorship Election, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has reminded all Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) of their obligations as observers by complying with the Commission’s rules of engagement for accredited election observers.
The meeting comes on the eve of the Ondo State Governorship elections scheduled to hold on Saturday 16th November 2024 which is just 2 weeks away.
Professor Yakubu said this today, Thursday, 31st October, 2024 at the fourth and last regular quarterly consultative meeting for this year with the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja.
Professor Yakubu reiterated that the Commission reserves the right to withdraw the accreditation of any individual observer or group that violates Code of Conduct for election observation. "A concise summary of the Code is contained in the 22-page document entitled “Briefing for Observers” available on our website www.inecnigeria.org "
He also revealed that 64,273 PVCs were collected by voters out of the 89,777 cards delivered to Ondo State. He said, this represents an impressive collection rate of 71.6%. "I want to appreciate the CSOs that helped to mobilise registered voters to collect their cards.
"As the Ondo State Governorship approaches, I wish to remind CSOs that are yet to submit reports for the Edo Governorship election to do so in earnest. I also urge you to intensify your advocacy for peaceful elections, especially now that campaign by political parties and candidates is in full swing in the State.
"Happily, there has been no major incident of election-related violence known to the Commission in Ondo State so far. However, we are aware of flash points in some Local Government Area to which we have already drawn the attention of the security agencies.
Professor Yakubu assured them that in the next few days, the Commission will upload on INEC website the cumulative figure of all PVCs collected in each of the 3,933 Polling Units across the State for the purpose of result management as provided by law and for public information.
"As usual, we have learnt lessons from previous elections. We have improved on the voter accreditation process and the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
"There have been similar improvements in observer and media accreditation. Our voter education efforts are ongoing. The capacity of election duty staff has improved with hands-on training for especially Polling Unit officials." he stressed
Speaking on behalf of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Mr Jide Ojo, Development consultant and Executive Director OJA Development Consulting congratulated INEC Chairman for his exemplary leadership over the past nine years.
He said Professor Yakubu has proven to be a responsible leader and under his leadership, the Commission has been justified. "I listen with rapt attention to your speech and I can testify that, yes, in some aspects of electoral administration, the Commission has improved quite by what we saw on ground in the industry.
"At least on the eve of the Edo State election, we have over 90% of the results uploaded, which is commendable. We also saw that election in Edo was peaceful and without any fatalities.
Mr Ojo however, challenged the INEC Chairman, to break the code of humility, particularly, the distorting threat of results that should not be on iREV being posted there. You see cancelled results that are uploaded. Some of the results are clear cases of overvoting.
"And I think the Commission has the power to investigate, not just asking the police to. To conduct an administrative investigation. It may not actually affect the overall result or the winner of the election. But we need to ensure the integrity of the results that are on the Commission's portal.
He pleaded with the INEC Chairman to do his best to break thought of impunity that the political class who believe they can induce staff of the Commission to do or undermine the electoral process and get away with it.
SpyeTV News learnt at the meeting that some of the accredited observers are already in Ondo State for the Governorship election and have interfaced with INEC officials in the State as INEC pledged to continue with its partnership with the CSOs, including capacity-building on various aspects of the electoral process jointly with some of their organisations.
INEC Chairman also affirmed that the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Anambra State Governorship election was released recently. As required by law, the Commission is under obligation to publish the timetable not later than 360 days before the date fixed for the election. The idea is to provide ample time to those involved in elections as political parties, candidates, observers, the media and security agencies to prepare. A copy of the Timetable is already available on our website. Again, hardcopies have been included in your folders for this meeting.