Some groups of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) namely Aid Foundation, Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC) Campaign for Democracy (CD), Empowering Women For Excellence Initiative (EWEI) Community Trust Health Foundation and Women Interfaith Council (WIC) have decried malfunctioning of the Smart Card Readers (SCR) which was said to have characterized elections in some parts of Kaduna State.
Sequel to this, the CSOs are advocating for electronic voting in subsequent future elections to address challenges identified in this election.
The CSOs said they came up together voluntarily to establish a Situation Room to observe the Presidential and Gubernatorial elections in Kaduna State.
The leader of the CSOs Mr. Emmanuel Bonet of Aid Foundation made the position of the CSOs known while briefing newsmen in Kaduna Tuesday.
According to Bonet, the purpose of the press conference is to make a preliminary statement and positions on their findings from the Kaduna Situation Room that was set up with the aim of observing the Presidential and Gubernatorial elections in Kaduna to encourage citizens to vote peacefully, curb fake news, link security agencies with trouble spots and refer INEC to areas with concerns.
The CSOs identified issues such as late setting up by INEC, inadequate cubicles, late start of election in some areas, and unavailability of form EC8A to most observers.
Read Also:
In their recommendation following issues and challenges identified during the election, the CSOs recommended that “Nigeria needs to move to an electronic form of voting to curb filling of multiple forms, multiple voting and the cumbersome nature of collation that give room for manipulation.
“There should be a set benchmark for political parties willing to contest National and State elections, for example, political parties that do not have candidates should not feature on ballot papers.
” INEC must establish a ‘Think Tank’ made up of civil society, logistics experts, media, traditional and religious leaders etc to support them in the planning process of election.
“The training and deployment of Adhoc staff should be early enough while political parties should endeavor to sensitize and educate the electorate on thuggery.
“The use of technology in mapping and tracking logistics and materials must be enhanced also INEC officials should be provided with necessary mobility so that they will not have any reason to be compromised when electorates offer to assist and INEC must device a means of ensuring that those trained are the ones deployed to the field.
“On our part as civil society organizations, we will continue to support citizen’s participation in governance process in which election is one. The people have asked that their voices be heard – We will do everything that we can to make sure Nigeria moves to its well-deserved position in the community of democrats” the CSOs stated.
The text of the briefing was signed by Emmanuel Bonet, Abdul Usman Bako, Imam Sani, Reverend Dangiwa, Patrick Katuka and Hajiya Aminu Kazaure for their respective organizations.
