Observe Party Primaries As You Do For Elections, INEC Tells CSOs

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to engage with political parties and observe their primaries just as they deploy observers to the main election conducted by the commission.

INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu said this at the first regular quarterly consultative meeting for 2024 with CSOs at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja yesterday.

Yakubu said, doing so, civil societies will strengthen their advocacy for inclusion of groups such as women, youths and Persons with Disability (PwD) that are under-represented in elective offices at national and state levels.

He declared that the commission will henceforth, operate strictly on the policy of “No Observation Report, No Accreditation,” saying some accredited observers were yet to do so for the general, supplementary, off-cycle, re-run and bye-elections.

“We appreciate the observations and recommendations contained in your election observation reports. Some of the reforms and innovations introduced by the Commission over the years draw from your observation reports.

“However, while many of you have submitted your reports, some accredited observers are yet to do so for the general election, supplementary elections, off-cycle elections, bye-elections and re-run elections.

“May I therefore seize this opportunity to remind those that are yet to submit their observation reports that it is mandatory to do so being one of the conditions for eligibility to observe future elections,” Yakubu said.

Giving an update on the preparations for the forthcoming Edo and Ondo governorship elections, the INEC chairman said, for the ‘heartbeat state’, 18 political parties have conducted their primaries which were monitored by the commission.

He said the political parties have 20 days from March 4 to March 24 to upload the list and personal particulars of their candidates to INEC’s dedicated web portal and only eight have presently done so while the commission will publish the flag bearers’ data (Form EC9) on March 31 for public scrutiny as required by law.

Yakubu said for Ondo State, political parties will commence their primaries for the governorship election in the next two weeks, stating that 16 of them have indicated interest in participating in the election.

Speaking for the CSOs, the executive director of Sustainable Gender Action Initiative, Mufuliat Fijabi, said they will continue to work together with election management bodies to deepen democracy in Nigeria and strengthen their observation of party primaries to ensure inclusivity in candidates emergence.

Fijabi expressed concern over the inability of some CSOs to submit election observation reports, assuring that they will expedite action for all pending reports to be submitted, saying to have a robust electoral process in the country, feedback is very important from both electoral bodies and CSOs to improve the process.