INEC raises alarm over rising violence, plans meeting with candidates, security agencies next week

Mahmoud Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), has expressed concern over growing threats to the peace accord, cautioning political parties against attacks on each other.

Chairman of the electoral umpire, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu raised the alarm on Tuesday while speaking at the Training of Master Trainers on Election Technology for the 2023 General Election held in Abuja.

On Monday, the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, raised alarm about an alleged plot to disrupt his campaign in the North West state of Kaduna.

Professor Yakubu in his remarks cautioned “parties and their supporters to focus on issues and steer clear of attacks on each other.”

The INEC Chairman who maintained that violence was a threat to seamless conduct of the electoral process and a breach of the Electoral Act further dropped the hint that apart from the Peace Accord, his Commission would convene a meeting, next week, under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to convey INEC position on imperative of peaceful campaigns.

He said: “Even as the Commission is working hard to ensure a credible process in the forthcoming elections, reports of clashes among parties and their supporters in some States of the country during the ongoing electioneering campaign is worrisome. So too is the reported denial of access to public facilities for parties and candidates in some States of the Federation. Let me caution parties and their supporters to focus on issues and steer clear of attacks on each other.

“These are not only violations of the Electoral Act 2022 but also negate the voluntary commitment by all political parties and candidates to the letter and spirit of the Peace Accord signed about three weeks ago under the auspices of the National Peace Committee (NPC).

“Parties, candidates and their supporters should not by acts of commission or omission further complicate the prevailing security situation in the country.

“A peaceful electioneering campaign is critical to the conduct of peaceful and credible elections. The Commission will continue to monitor the situation closely and will convene a meeting with leaders of political parties next week to discuss, among other issues, the imperative of peaceful campaigns and equal access to public facilities.

“In the same vein, the Commission will also meet with the security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) next week.”

Seray Jah, Country Director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), explained the importance of the training and the Foundation’s partnership with INEC.

“This training is significant as it presents a huge opportunity for the Commission to enhance the transparency and credibility of elections through the deployment of technology on a large scale for the conduct of the 2023 General elections, using the Electoral Act 2022. The training would help the Commission to generate a pool of master trainers that will support the cascade training of over 10, 000 technical support staff across the 36 states and the FCT, for the 2023 General elections.

“The skills gathered here by the master trainers who have been carefully selected by the Commission would be useful in training the Registration Area Technical Support Staff (RATechSS) who will be deployed during the elections to troubleshoot issues arising from technological devices deployed during the 2023 General elections. ”

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