The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, a coalition of Civil Societies working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria, has called on the National Assembly to ensure the passage of the Electoral Offences Commission Bill.
Speaking to Blueprint Weekend, Friday in Abuja, the alternate chair of the group, Barr Esther Uzoma, said the bill when passed would ensure more effective enforcement of election laws.
She commended the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting a much improved governorship election in Edo state and urged the commission to ensure that the progress made with improvements in its conduct of the election were deepened and sustained during the Ondo state governorship election on October 10, 2020.
According to her, “The administration of the Edo State Governorship Election appears to have been a marked improvement on recent previous governorship elections.
“INEC’s processes appeared to operate smoothly. The logistics issues of distribution of materials, deployment of staff and challenges in the Voters’ Register were significantly reduced. In addition, security personnel acted professionally.”
Speaking further the legal practitioner, who is also the founder Proactive Gender initiatives, said: “We commend INEC for introducing the COVID-19 protocols to address the public health concerns caused by the crisis of COVID-19 and urge a greater effort at enforcing the protocols ahead of future elections.
“The incidence of vote buying during this election was high and we call on INEC to deepen and expand the use of its Election Result Viewing portal in order to increase the transparency of Nigeria’s elections.”
