NATIONAL CHAIRMAN of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday, enumerated reasons elections are violence-prone and outlined the measures the commission has put in place to make the 2015 elections violence-free.
Optimistic that the elections will be peaceful, free and fair, Jega, who spoke at a public lecture organized by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations in Lagos warned politicians to conduct themselves properly and desist from acts that could cause violence.
Optimistic that the elections will be peaceful, free and fair, Jega, who spoke at a public lecture organized by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations in Lagos warned politicians to conduct themselves properly and desist from acts that could cause violence.
Represented by the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola, the INEC boss in a paper titled: ‘Curbing Electoral Violence in Nigeria: The Public Relations Dynamics,’ identified causes of electoral violence in the country as bad attitude of politicians, weak regulatory framework, attractive nature of public offices, citizens’ poor knowledge and ignorance of civic education, lack of internal democracy, monetisation of the electoral process, politicians attempts to corrupt electoral officers and voters, thuggery and insecurity among others.
Speaking on efforts to check rigging and violence, he said measures are being put in place to curb any form of violence that could erupt. He said the commission has made a compilation of an authentic voters’ register with the voters’ biometrics, embarked on massive voter education programme to increase citizens’ awareness of the electoral process toward reducing their level of electoral ignorance.
We are working on “improvement of security through partnership with security agencies at all levels, risk mapping of the country into low, medium and high risk zones with the view to ensuring adequate security during every electoral event, set up communication policy guidelines to bridge the gap between INEC and the citizenry leading to regular engagements with critical stakeholders to discuss issues of the forthcoming general elections.”
Other measures include establishing of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) comprising chairmen/secretaries of all registered political parties to foster better relationships among them, production and circulation of printed guidelines and memorandum of understanding for political parties toward regulating the activities of the political parties and improved standards in the production of Sensitive Electoral Material (that is serial numbering and colour coding of ballot papers and result sheets as well as security coding of ballot boxes).
