The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) said it has deployed 369 observers nationwide to monitor today’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.
This was made know during a joint press conference on Friday organised by NILDS and Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) at the Envoy Hotel in Abuja, under the political party watch project, with the theme, “Observation of inclusive practices of political parties in Nigeria’s 2023 presidential and N/Assembly elections.”
The NILDS Director General, Prof. Abubakar Suleiman who was represented by the director, democracy and governance, Prof. Adewale Aderemi said there would be a political party command centre where all the 369 observers would be sending in their findings from the field.
He said, “With regards to the 2023 elections starting tomorrow (today), NILDS will be deploying 369 observers nationwide. We have about 9 in each state. We will have 3 in each of the three senatorial districts. We have roughly 50 observers to observe elections in the FCT.
“We will be operating a command centre, with other stakeholders. We will be taking real time with field reports from these 369 observers.
“We will analyse them with particular attention to involvement of women, youths, people living with disability; whether they have been included into the process by the 18 political parties.
“In the studio here, there are going to be veterans, very eminent, qualified and distinguished analysts. That panel has also been carefully selected and we have women, we have youths and other stakeholders.”
Fielding questions from newsmen, the WFD Country Director, Dr. Adewale Olorunmola, said vote-buying should be discouraged in the election, stressing it portends danger to democracy and good governance.
