ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) has expressed displeasure at the postponement of the 2019 General Elections, a decision made public few hours to the elections.
While acknowledging the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in taking necessary steps to deliver a democratic election, ActionAid Nigeria has also expressed concerns on how INEC has managed the situation.
Speaking on the postponement, Ene Obi, Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria “Postponing elections is becoming a reoccurring dismal in Nigeria.
Looking at the trend from 2011, 2015 and now 2019, we expect that INEC would have used their learning from those experiences and not have it reoccur again.
Election is about trust and we fear that the mismanagement or miscommunication on the part of INEC can degenerate to a trust issue between the commission and the citizens”.
Ene added that the implications of the postponement will affect the citizens adversely “The implication of the late postponement of the election on the economics of citizens, security, education, and reputation of the country is monumental.
The many questions INEC need to answer quickly to restore confidence in the citizenry includes; steps the commission is taking to secure the integrity of the ballot? What happens to those ballot papers that were already sent to different polling stations? how can we guarantee the quality of the process going forward and ensure that this does not happen again?
The 2019 General election is a 4-year project which started since 2015 and what has transpired within the last few hours is a clear indication that it is time to rethink our electoral process and adopt procedures that are cost effective, efficient and decentralised.
This also reinforces the need for us to strengthen our institutions especially that of the INEC.
ActionAid Nigeria therefore calls on stakeholders to be proactive with the electoral process and desist from taking citizens for granted, while demanding that the INEC provide a detailed reason for the postponement of the elections and proactively deploy all the necessary electoral material to the various destinations before Friday February 22nd, 2019.
We equally call on the Inspector General of Police to deploy security personnel to protect the INEC facilities across the country because security of both lives and ballot materials are vital for credible polls.
