The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclosed plans to meet with all stakeholders including registered political parties to brainstorm on the controversies trailing the Electoral Act and how to make the 2019 elections credible.
Speaking to reporters, yesterday, after a media-gender sensitive programme organised by INEC in Lagos, INEC’s Deputy Director on Gender, Mrs. Blessing Obidegwu, said the Professor Yakubu Mahmood-led electoral commission is putting all measures in place to make the forthcoming elections the most credible in the nation’s history.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari sparked controversies when, for the fourth time he refused to put assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Against that background, Mrs. Obidiegwu said: “the commission has plans of meeting with stakeholders this week and I believe there will be a lasting solution. I am confident that with the level of our preparation, we will have credible elections come 2019.
“INEC is doing a lot to make 2019 most credible. We started with planning. We have looked at our processes and plans, also looked at the technology we will deploy and we are engaging stakeholders like political parties, civil societies and the media.
“We appeal to other stakeholder to be part of making 2019 elections the most credible ever as the commission cannot do it alone.”
The INEC Gender Director had earlier decried the under-reporting and participation of women politicians in past elections, saying: “The commission is trying to get women involved in the 2019 elections by enhancing their participation in the electoral process and one of the ways is to get women politicians reported positively by journalists. This was why the commission put up a seminar on gender-sensitive reporting on election.
“In the time past, women politicians were stereotyped and unjustly reported in very trivial matters.”
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