Ahead of the November 16th, 2024 governorship election in Ondo state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been called upon to transmit election results at every stage online accessible by the public in order to reduce unnecessary electoral issues in the state.
Folashade Bamigboye, the Ondo state Coordinator, Youth-led Electoral Reform Project, YERP-Naija of the New Generation Girls and Women Development Initiative (NIGAWD), made the call on Thursday in Akure when she led the team of the organisation to the Ondo state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Leke Adegbite, at the NUJ Press Centre.
According to her, voting should be a peaceful and powerful way to make the people’s voice heard, while violence disrupts the electoral process and harms the community.
Bamigboye also said all pre-election cases from the Federal High Court to Supreme Court should be concluded before election day and post-election petitions should be concluded before inauguration of winners.
Speaking on the reason why youth must shun vote trading, the Ondo state Coordinator, Youth-led Electoral Reform Project, ‘YERP-Naija’, however, said this unethical and illegal practice undermines the democratic process in the country.
Read also: INEC releases final voter registers for Edo, Ondo guber polls
“NIGAWD is implementing the Youth-led Electoral Reform (YER) Southwest advocacy project titled Supporting Youth to Lead Electoral Reform Efforts in the six states in the Southwest part of Nigeria. The project seeks to lead multi-stakeholder engagement leading to advocacy for electoral reform at the national and subnational levels to address the gaps observed during the 2023 elections.
“This project is being carried out by NIGAWD in order to encourage young people in Ondo state to participate fully in the forthcoming governorship election.
“We are here to call on you people, journalists to help us use your media platforms to support the youth priority recommendations with national and state assembly members to share our recommendations with them either via WhatsApp and ensure that these recommendations are reflected in the final outcome of the review.
“We also encourage NUJ members to help us publicize YERP-Naija recommendations,” she said.
Leke Adegbite, the Ondo NUJ chairman, who commended the team for pushing out good things for the vulnerable in the society, however, said “there is need to modify our democracy.”
Adegbite, however, pledged the support of the media professionals in the state for the organization by achieve its aims for the November 16, 2024 governorship election in Ondo State.
