The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is poised to ensure that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are not disenfranchised in next month’s elections.
Disclosing this in its daily bulletin issued on Friday in Abuja, INEC, revealed that it had scheduled a “crucial meeting’’ with stakeholders on Tuesday to ensure that IDPs get to vote in the elections.
The bulletin lists stakeholders expected at the meeting to include representatives of the governments of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States as well as members and speakers of their Houses of Assembly. Others are religious leaders, representatives of security agencies as well as Civil Society Organizations.
It continued that the Directors-General of the National Emergency Management Agency and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, present and former resident electoral commissioners of the troubled states, and INEC administrative secretaries in the states would also attend the meeting.
Recall that the electoral umpire had organized a roundtable to discuss IDPs participation in the electoral process about two months ago.
The commission’s mouthpiece reveals that at the roundtable, “Experts and academics generated brilliant ideas to address the issue of the IDPs which were submitted to the commission.
“Thereafter, the commission set up a Task Force on how to get the IDPs to vote within the ambit of the extant laws,” it noted.
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