The Organization for Community Civic Engagements (OCCEN), the Democracy Drivers Network with support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Washington, United States, have organised a town hall meeting in Katsina to boost citizens’ political participation and youth inclusion in governance.
Speaking at the gathering, convener of the meeting, Ismail Bello, said: “The meeting today is the first of its kind ever in the history of Katsina State as it brings together young aspirants, civil societies, academia, media, religious leaders, traditional institutions, and persons living with disability to promote increased representation of young women and men in political offices thereby enhancing the quality of democracy and governance.
He further said: “We recognize that political parties are essential in democracy as they provide a structure for the participation of young women and men in the electoral process but lack of parties’ internal democracy and high cost of securing party nominations could undermine the emergence of young candidates in the 2023 general elections.”
Participants at the end of the deliberations were able to get commitments from representatives of some political parties at the event. The political parties committed to adopting open, transparent, and democratic process for all party primaries in the candidate selection process.
They also considered reducing the cost of expression of interest and nomination forms for youths persons with disabilities aspiring for political offices in the state.
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