Council Polls: Do the needful to guarantee credible process - Activist tasks Government, NASS

The Executive Director, Conscience for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, CHRCR, based in Lokoja, Kogi State, Comrade Idris Miliki, has tasked the federal and state governments as well as the National Assembly to do the needful in the quest to guarantee free, fair and acceptable council elections across the country in the future.

Idris Miliki, who made the call yesterday, Monday December 14 in Lokoja, while presenting the report on the just concluded council election held in the 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi State, described democracy as the best form of government, stressing that elections play a pivotal role in representative democracy.

Our Kogi State Correspondent reports that the human right activist, added that credible elections also serve as ingredient of development, where it is properly conducted, noting that it encourages inclusivity and participation of all.

"All hope where put in place when the current Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission, KOSIEC was constituted in the first quarter of 2020.

"The Commission on September 9, 2020, released a timetable which stipulated that elections shall be conducted in the 21 Local Governments and 239 wards. The election was held as stipulated on the timetable with all forms of electoral malpractices, which does not meet International standard of conducting election in this century", he lamented.

He observed that pre-election activities indicated that not much was done by KOSIEC on civic and voters education, lamenting that even political parties did not conduct transparent primaries that produced candidates that participated in the elections.

"Materials were not distributed to the wards on time, which made it difficult for electoral materials to reach their respective polling units.

"On the day of elections, several polling units, did not receive materials as at 8:00am, contrary to the notice of Poll released by KOSIEC on the 23rd of November, 2020, that voting shall commence by 8:00am.

"It was also noticed across the state, that several polling units did not receive materials at all, as election officials were not available to conduct the elections"

Commending the presence of Security Personnel at the polling units, Comrade Miliki, bemoaned Civil Society Organizations, CSOs for not living up to expectations in the area of citizens’ mobilization, attributing the lapses to inadequate resources.

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