The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,
assured on Tuesday that it would repeat the feat it recorded in last Saturday’s
election in Ekiti State in future elections. The
Commission’s Chairman, Attahiru Jega, who stated this in Abuja at a meeting
with the leaderships of the 26 registered political parties, said the
experience in Ekiti election would be improved upon specifically in both the
August 17 governorship election in Osun State and the 2015 general
elections.
The
chairmen and secretaries of the parties attended the meeting held at the INEC
Headquarters in Abuja.
The
parley was part of the Commission’s efforts to harmonize and approve the
guidelines for the commencement of the election campaign by candidates and
conduct of election primaries by political parties ahead of the 2015 general
elections.
Mr.
Jega commended the efforts of the parties in contributing to the peaceful
conduct of the Ekiti election and asked them to make the same commitment during
future elections.
He
said, “From the INEC staff, to the young men and women of the NYSC and other
tertiary institutions, to the security agencies, political parties, civil
society organizations and the candidates and host of other stakeholders, every
one put together in their best and our collective best turned out to be good
enough in Ekiti. That is how it should be and it is a very good lesson for our
future elections.
“The
successful conduct of a free, fair and peaceful election in Ekiti is a good
omen for the subsequent elections to come, and indeed for the satisfaction of
the aspiration of Nigerians for a consolidated democracy. We must therefore not
rest on our oars, but continue to do our best collectively to sustain and keep
on improving on this achievement.
“The
coming election in Osun state, God willing should on the count be better, and the
2015 general elections must be the best. It is therefore a challenge for all of
us to join hands and continue to work together to ensure this necessary
outcome.”
He
said the Commission was not happy with the way the parties and their candidates
were flouting election campaign and threatened to sanction any of them who
failed to follow the 90 days prescribed in the Electoral Act before embarking
on campaign.
The
Chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Tanko Yinusa, who
congratulated the INEC chairman on the successful conduct of the Ekiti
governorship election, noted that the Council had a 13-point agenda which it
forwarded to INEC for consideration.
Mr.
Yinusa, who is also the National chairman of National Conscience Party, NCP,
stated that highlights of the agenda, which it intended to discuss with the
National Assembly included measures to ensure the survival of political
parties, registration and deregistration as well as funding of political
parties.
No comments:
Post a Comment