The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) has selected six State Independent Electoral Commissions (SEICs) across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria to enhance the credibility of the local government elections.
The Country Director of IFES, Mr Seray Jah, who disclosed this in an interview in Jos, Plateau State, on Monday, said the six states are being supported through the funding of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) from the UK.
He narrated that local government elections are very crucial because of their closeness to the grassroots, where people are yearning for development, adding that it is very important for a nation to build strong local government elections because they are closer to the people.
“Having been involved in this process for a while, we, along with our donors and ourselves as IFES, want to see more credibility in the elections, more trust by the voters, more proactive engagement by stakeholders with the Commission, and more political willingness by the governments that oversee the SIECs.
“Achieving these goals would enhance not only the elections but also local development. If people trust the elected officials, they are more likely to believe in them, which could lead to better governance.
“Our position is to support these institutions through technology, technical assistance, capacity building, and training, as well as through promoting gender and inclusion. This approach aims to ensure that they conduct more widely accepted elections, ultimately leading people to consider them nearly perfect.
On the choice of the six states, the Country Director of IFES said that before making the selections, it conducted a political economy analysis to determine which states would form the best partnerships with IFES and demonstrate willingness, adding that after analysing all the states in the country, it was narrowed down to Plateau, Kaduna, Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, and one more.
He stated that the political economy analysis guided this decision and that the essence of the initiative was to build a model of state-independent electoral commissions that would be able to administer local government elections effectively.
According to him, this will further serve as an example for other states outside these six to emulate, and we’ll prepare them for credible local government elections.
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