Ahead of the FCT Area Council elections, the FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Alhaji Yahaya Bello has pledged the commitment of INEC to partner with Yiaga Africa and other credible Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to ensure the success of the exercise.
The REC said this on Wednesday in Abuja, when he received the elections team of Yiaga Africa on an advocacy visit in preparation for the council elections scheduled to hold on February 12.
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Alhaji Bello who commended Yiaga Africa for their effort in observation of the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) and its recommendations to improve the process said, “During the CVR, Yiaga Africa were the first to deploy observers who consistently observe the process.
“We are going to continue partnering and engaging with you and we cherish whatever contributions you are going to make to ensure the election is a success.”
He said that feedback from election observation from organizations like Yiaga Africa will be very important in improving the electoral process.
He urged Yiaga Africa to also concentrate on ensuring that women participate in the political process.
The Yiaga Africa delegation was led by the Head of Knowledge Management, Safiya Bichi, who said that the visit was to explore areas of collaboration to improve citizens’ participation for the February 12th FCT council elections.
She said that this was part of Yiaga Africa #WatchingTheVote advocacy to critical stakeholders to promote peaceful and credible FCT council elections with improved citizens participation in the process.
On his part, the head of Yiaga Africa’s Elections team, Paul James, said the organization will be employing the election-circle approach in its observation of the FCT election to observe what happens before, during and after the elections.
“For Yiaga Africa, every election is important. For the FCT Election, Yiaga Africa has started observing the pre-election environment. This includes providing a platform for young candidates running for the elections to share their plans and challenges ahead of the elections,” he added.
He said the pre-election observation enables Yiaga Africa to provide information on what is happening and recommendations if things are going wrong.
The Yiaga Africa said it will deploy observers across all the six Area Councils in the FCT to observe the election process from the beginning till the end including the collation of election results.
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