The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will in the next few days, intensify engagement with stakeholders, including party leaders and candidates, traditional and religious leaders, transport providers, civil society organisations and the media to ensure peaceful and credible conduct of the February 12 Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at the meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committe on Election Security (ICCES) to review the Security Arrangement for the FCT polls.
Yakubu said the meeting was crucial
as securing the environment is the foundation for a peaceful, well-organised and credible election which was recently demonstrated in the Anambra State Governorship election.
He said, the Commission has also been evaluating the risk to the election using the Election Violence Mitigation and Advocacy Tool (EVMAT) with the aim to identify early warning signals that could assist the security agencies and other stakeholders in devising and deploying appropriate mitigation strategies.
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“Among other areas of concern, the Commission focused on threats specific to geographical locations, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, the issue of hard drugs, presence of insurgents and armed groups, intra and inter-party conflicts, and incidents of hate speech,” Yakubu said.
On the Ekiti State Governorship election, the INEC Chairman said the period earmarked in the timetable and schedule of activities for party primaries ended last Saturday as all the 18 political parties served notices for their party primaries to elect their candidates for the election and invited the Commission to monitor them.
“One party adopted the direct method for electing its candidate while 16 parties opted for the indirect method. However, from our field report, the Boot Party (BP) did not hold its primary election at any venue known to, and monitored by, the Commission. Consequently, we do not expect the party to nominate a candidate for the Ekiti State Governorship election.
“On this note, let me once again warn political parties to strictly adhere to the Commission’s timelines for all activities, including the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates. These timelines are firm and fixed. No deviation or violation will be allowed,” he added.
