2019: WANEP, INEC, ECOWAS launch project to mitigate electoral violence

The West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) in collaboration with the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) of Nigeria have launched the Electoral Violence Monitoring, Analysis and Mitigation (EMAM) project in order to mitigate violence during the electoral process of the coming 2019 general elections.

The EMAM project, launched at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, is designed to facilitate and support local and national response architectures that link early warning with informed response to prevent or mitigate identified threats capable of affecting the peaceful conduct of the Nigerian elections.

This will be achieved by developing and validating indicators to inform specific monitoring and reporting of violent election threats by community monitors before, during and after the elections.

Speaking at the launch of the project, the representative of Commission’s Early Warning Directorate, Maimouna Konate stated that WANEP’s support to the operationalization of the ECOWAS Early Warning mechanism cannot be over emphasized as its National Early Warning Systems (NEWS) managers across the region form a part of the ECOWAS field monitors who populate the ECOWARN system with real time data on a daily and weekly basis.

Also Dr.Chukwuemeka Eze, the Executive Director of WANEP, noted that the responsibility of ensuring that elections in Africa are free, fair and credible cannot be shouldered by ECOWAS, African Union and its member states alone, hence there is a need for all Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and interested parties to make concerted effort to achieve success in electoral processes.

Representing the INEC Chairman, Dr. Mohammed Lecky emphasized the importance of the project for the upcoming general elections while assuring the participants of INEC’s readiness to conduct peaceful, free and fair elections.

In recognition of efforts by INEC to enhance its measures to deepen and consolidate democracy, the representative of the African Union Commission, Mfrekeobong Udo Ukpanah urged all stakeholders to refrain from all acts of violence and use only peaceful and legal channels to express and address any disputes.