Osun state Deputy Director of Voters Education and Publicity at the Independent National Electoral Commisson (INEC), Stephen Ojewande has tasked political parties on internal democracy, stressing that this guarantees increased voters education.
Ojewande said this in Abuja during a review and refresher workshop for training of trainers on voter education organised by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD).
According to him, the commission had an intensive multidimensional voters education across the country in collaboration with other stakeholders before the 2019 general elections to ensure that no citizens were disechanfrasised.
He regretted the cases of voter empathy, blaming it on the lack of internal party democracy amongst the various available political parties in the country.
“The factors responsible for voter apathy is the political class,the political class need to get their games right in terms internal democracy and they need to involve in voters education.
“By the time you have a favourable environment, you don’t need to force voters to come out, as they will willingly come out,” Ojewande said.
He however stressed the need for improved security of voters, saying no voter would be encourged to go cast their votes if they are not assured of their safety.
On the call for electronic voting, he maintained that there was no legal framework that allows that yet, assuring that INEC is willing to go electronic if the electoral Act permits.
Earlier, the Head of Department, Community Development Services and Social Projects, Osun Secretariat, Mr Kayode Ola-Peters stressed the importance of voters education by corp members spread across communities in the country, saying its impact cannot be over emphasised.
In his welcome address, the Country Representative of Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Mr Sobowale said the workshop was aimed at equipping INEC officials and corp members with capacity on civic and voters education to enable them perform these duties better in the future.
“The program was designed for youths ,women and Persons With Disabilities, the youths constitute male and female between 18 and 35 in which the corp members fall within the group.
“We targeted them to build their capacity and also to reach to their peers in the places of primary assignment because Corp members are posted to different parts of the country which includes the grassroot they are able to carry out voters education and sensitisation to areas difficult to reach.
