A senator-elect and All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain in Ekiti State, Hon Opeyemi Bamidele, has called for more improvement in the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
Bamidele said although the country’s democracy is still at the nascent stage, there was need for radical development of the system in the area of voter education.
Bamidele won the National Assembly election on February 23 , polling 94,279 votes to defeat the candidate of the PDP, Barr Obafemi Adewale .
Speaking after voting at his unit in Saturday’s house of assembly election at Ward B, Iyin Ekiti, Bamidele said a lot needed to be done in addressing pervasive cases of violence and apathy in the country.
“INEC must up its game if we really want to get it right. In some part of the country, there were late arrival of materials, so this should not happen,” he said.
Bamidele said the apathy witnessed in Ekiti was a general trend in all the states of the federation where governorship elections were not held.
The senator-elect added that it was imperative for the National Orientation Agency and politicians to begin aggressive voter education in the southern part of the country.
He , however, expressed satisfaction with the peaceful nature of the assembly poll in Ekiti, saying “though, there was apathy, but no incident of violence and attack.
” The most important thing in politics is safety of voters, and once voters are safe, the issue of low turnout, though not good enough but it can be easily addressed”.
He added further: “in the presidential election, the stakes were high. The politicians across party divide knew the bandwagon effects it will have on the assembly election, that was why we have large turnout on February 23.
“Again, the fact that there was no governorship election also affects the turnout of voters in our state,” he said.
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