Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has pledged more inclusion for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) to engender the development of democracy in the country.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Outreach and Partnership Committee (OPC), Dr. Adekunle Ladipo Ogunmola, made the pledge yesterday in Abuja when he received a delegation of the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) led by its Executive Director, Ms. Grace Jerry.
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Dr. Ogunmola said the commission was committed to deepening the successes recorded so far in the democratic development in the country, including continuous improvement of the participation of PWDs in elections and other democratic processes.
Speaking earlier, Grace Jerry said that before the September 19 and October 10, 2020, governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states respectively, IFA shared some recommendations from its report called: “Breaking the Barrier”, with the commission.
According to her, IFA made some demands concerning the changes it envisaged during the conduct of both elections and commended the commission for keeping the integrity of its word as it deployed assistive materials as promised during their visit to the commission on September 4, 2020.
Jerry, however, said there existed a capacity gap among ad hoc staff, as field experience showed that some ad hoc staff had assistive materials but did not know how to use them, while some did not paste Form PWD EC30E as they were mistaken for Form 30A.
She, therefore, recommended that data captured via the use of Form EC 40H should not be left unattended as the data would assist in subsequent elections and requested to assist in the analysis of data.
