The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has been elected President of the new five-member Board of the 15-nation ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) for the next two years.
In a poll held during ECONEC’s 5th biennial General Assembly meeting in Cotonou, Benin Republic, the Chair of the country’s Electoral Commission Mr. Emmanuel Tiando also emerged 1st Vice President. His Guinea-Bissau counterpart, Mr. Jose Pedro Sambu, was elected 2nd Vice President, while Mr. Newton Barry of Burkina Faso clinched the position of ECONEC Treasurer, just as Ms Maria do Rosario Goncalves from Cabo Verde was elected deputy Treasurer.
Speaking after his election, Prof Yakubu thanked his colleagues for their support and pledged INEC’s commitment to reposition ECONEC, in the ECOWAS spirit of solidarity and cooperation among the Network member States.
ECONEC was set up in 2008 to foster cooperation and experience sharing among member States and to support ECOWAS in the realisation of its mandate of regional integration and the promotion of electoral processes with integrity for the deepening of democracy in the region.
