kogiflame.com
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State may no doubt be seeking a second term in office as most first term Governors always do.
This is even more likely given the kind of success his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC has recorded in the just concluded general elections at both the federal and state levels.
As the race for the Kogi State Governorship election is set to begin, the Governor if he decides to run eventually, he will have to fight other top contenders to retain his seat in the state.
Senator Dino Melaye and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will no doubt be planning to give a good chase to unseat Governor Bello in the coming election.
It is left for the party to pick a strong and popular candidate that will attract good support base and have the support of Melaye too.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday fixed November 2, 2019, to conduct governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States.
According to PM News, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Voter Education and Information, Festus Okoye, announced this in a statement on Tuesday.
Earlier, INEC had said that it would conduct an extensive review and debriefing on the just concluded 2019 general elections, between May and June, in line with its existing practice.
Recall that there were calls in some quarters that the elections were were marred by irregularities and violence.
Leading the pack of people the voices making these allegations is the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, which has consistently condemned the presidential election won by President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling APC.
A statement by Mr Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chaiman, Information and Voter Education Committee, in Abuja said that the proposal for the review and debriefing was approved by the commission at it meeting on Tuesday.
Okoye said that the review was intended to evaluate the Commission’s performance of the key activities of the general elections.
He said this was with a view to addressing identified challenges and strengthening operational and institutional capacities to conduct free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.
Meanwhile, Okoye said that the two sets of activities were envisaged in the reviews as follows: “lnternal reviews involving National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, Electoral Officers, Collation and Returning Officers as well as other key staff of the Commission;
Review meetings with key stakeholders such as political parties, civil society organizations, security agencies, the media and development partners;
“These reviews and debriefing will take place between May and June 2019.”
Okoye said the commission had commenced work on a comprehensive report of the 2019 general elections and had mandated its Electoral Institute to undertake detailed researches into various aspects of the elections.
“It is the Commission’s hope that the outcomes of these reviews and studies will feed into further electoral reforms and its preparations for handling future elections.”
The focus of the review according to Okoye would be on the planning, organisation, conduct and coordination of the general elections, particularly on certain areas. These include logistics, procurement and deployment of personnel and materials; Continuous Voter Registration and Collection of permanent voter’s cards.
Others include legal environment of the elections, particularly the legal challenges experienced over nomination of candidates and conduct of elections. “Processes of party registration, party primaries and nomination of candidates; quality of ad hoc staff; Relationship between the Commission and diverse stakeholders, including political parties, security agencies, civil society organisations, the media and development partners;
“And quality of inclusivity of the elections, particularly regarding persons with disability, Internally Displaced Persons (lDPs) and gender balance.
It is believed that the reviews that the electoral umpire is planning will make it improve and conduct better and more acceptable elections in the country using the Kogi and Bayelsa States elections as case studies.
Culled from dailyadvent.com
