2023: TMG to re-strategize on election credibility, monitoring -Rafsanjani

The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has said that it is re-strategizing to ensure electoral credibility, sustainable democracy and equip citizens on their fundamental human rights ahead of the 2023 General Elections.

The Chairman of TMG and Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Mallam Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said this on Friday in Abuja at the group’s ‘Reflection and Re-strategizing Meeting ahead of 2023 elections.’

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According to him, the move became imperative in order to entrench the values of transparency and accountability in the electoral process.

Rafsanjani said that the group decided to review its strategy to ensure that fully participated in the electoral cycle in Nigeria by observing and ensuring that instances of party conventions, primaries and election and post elections were fully documented.

He said that this would ensure that bridges and gaps were identified and improved so that elections would continue to be seen as free, fair, credible and acceptable to Nigerians.

“We have suffered a lot of electoral fraud in Nigeria, we have suffered a lot of violence in Nigeria, we have suffered a lot of deficits in the electoral system and value. Therefore, TMG is re-strategizing to ensure that Nigerians are fully aware of their fundamental rights as patriotic responsible citizens.

“It is also to ensure that Nigerians are able to hold their official accountable because the absence of electoral accountability is what is causing the impunity and that is widening the corruption and mismanagement of governance in Nigeria,” Rafsanjani said.

He also urged on the Nation Assembly to ignore calls to amend clause 84 (10) of the Electoral Amendment Law 2022 because it would cripple democracy and give power to politicians who already have the resources to control things.

He said, “We do not support this kind of unfair contest where people are using their incumbency as a political appointee to come and override other members using their position and money to influence the outcome of election. It is only fair that there should be equal level playing ground for everyone.”

Also speaking, the TMG Vice Chairman, Mrs. Mirian Menkiti, said that the group is developing a new strategic plan to cover its activities from now until 2026 which was a five-year strategic development plan.

Menkiti said that the elections of 2023 would soon come, thus it was necessary for TMG to plan and focus on election observation especially with the introduction of new electoral technology, as approved by the Electoral Law 2022.

“TMG would work to ensure that there was inclusivity (of women and youths) and plan on how to engage with our partners, bearing in mind the need to entrench issues of inclusive gender equality at every level in Nigeria at this time.

“We are looking at deploying, using the technologies to deploy more election observers. In the past, we were able to deploy up to 10,000 observers, but now, with new technology, we can even make every citizen, an observer using their phones.

“This is to ensure that people know that there are organizations observing, we realize that when people notice that they are being observed, they do things better,” Menkiti said.