Following last Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti state, the Coalition of Observer groups that monitored the election has certified it to be free, fair and credible, urging other contenders to accept the outcome.
The Coalition specifically appealed to the candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Segun Oni, who had threatened a lawsuit against the outcome and the Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bisi Kolawole, to embrace the winner in the interest of peace and development of the state.
In a communique issued on Tuesday, in Ado Ekiti, by the leader of the Coalition, Victor Kalu, the group praised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for their neutrality during the election.
The communique read during a press conference addressed by Kalu appealed to Nigerians to always vote according to their conscience, alluding to this as the best panacea against vote trading on election day.
Kalu said: “We, the accredited civil society election observers for the just concluded Ekiti Governorship election, therefore, adjudge the election to be free, fair, credible and transparent.
“The exercise met the required international standard for a credible democratic election. The result should therefore be accepted by all as a true reflection of the will of Ekiti people.
“Since INEC had announced a clear winner, the rest of the candidates should see themselves as co-winners and toe the path of peace by congratulating the clear winner for the good and progress of the state.”
Commending the INEC and security agencies for displaying professionalism, Kalu added that “We observed during monitoring that the security agencies and INEC were duty conscious and performed their jobs dispassionately without fear or favour.
“They indeed saw the election duty as a national assignment and acted accordingly. To improve our electoral process, INEC and political parties and other stakeholders especially the civil society groups should engage in civil voter education and mobilisation before elections and encourage impressive voter participation during elections.”
On how to tackle the much-vilified vote-trading that allegedly pervaded the poll, Kalu noted that “We have a law that prohibited vote-buying. People should participate in elections with their conscience and not through financial inducement.
“Voters are partners in making the expected electoral process credible,” Kalu stated.
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