2019: INEC seeks equal coverage for political parties

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has appealed to media to provide a level field for political parties and encourage issue-based campaigns.
The Commission’s Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the appeal yesterday when he paid a courtesy visit to the DirectorGeneral of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Malam Yakubu Ibn-Mohammed, in Abuja.
He said: “As a body saddled with the responsibility of registering and regulating Political Parties, we would like equal access for all political parties in Nigeria.
“As far as the Commission is concerned, all political parties are of equal standing with the Commission.
We will continue to encourage NTA to continue to provide a level playing field for all political parties in Nigeria.
“The Commission will very soon put up the manifestos of all political parties on our website, so you have access to manifestos in engaging with the political parties and candidates, ask them questions around what they want to offer the country rather than mundane issues.
“This we believe will also help convey the message of what distinguishes one political party from another and will also help us to focus more on issues rather than personalities.
” Yakubu also spoke of the revamping the National Interagency Committee on Voter Education and Publicity (NICVEP) ahead the General Elections.
“As we approach the 2019 General Elections we also need to engage big time with the media so that we will all continue to be partners in the business of Voter Education and Publicity.
The Commission is determined to activate what we call the NICVEP (National Inter-agency Committee on Vote Education and Publicity) which the NTA, other media organisations and professional media bodies are part of.
” He reiterated the Commission’s commitment towards ensuring that only votes cast by Nigerians would determine who wins in the 2019 general elections adding that the media had a role in entrenching the culture of free and fair elections.
Responding, NTA’s DG gave the assurance that the Authority was ready to collaborate with the Commission to deepen the nation’s  democracy.
He said: “We are ready to partner with INEC, because for us in NTA, we have responsibility to ensure that every political party is given a level playing ground to participate and the voters are given the opportunity to make the right choices and the only way we can make this happen is for NTA to deal with political parties by stressing issues rather than on the personalities involved.
“INEC has taken a very positive step towards making this possible for us by pledging to make available the manifestos all the registered political parties (to NTA).
Once we have these manifestos, we will be able to know what each political party stands for and we will be able to question and take them to task on the issues contained in their manifestos rather than the personalities around which the parties are made.