By Chimezie Godfrey
The Electoral Hub, an organ of the Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development (IRIAD), has expressed confidence that combined action from various stakeholders will yield effective result from the FCT Area Council elections.
The Executive Director, Electoral Hub, Princess Hamman-Obels made the assertion in a statement on Friday.
Hamman-Obels was set to observe the area council elections scheduled to hold in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Saturday, 12 February 2022, said that for the past six weeks, they have been monitoring the electoral process and engaging the public. The following are some of the activities we have conducted:
On deployment of observers across the FCT, she urged stakeholders to take collective action to promote integrity during the elections.
She said,”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.”
Hamman-Obels who urged the media should keep the public informed about the events on election day, expressed confidence that with collective efforts of will yield positive results.
“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,” she stated.