By Balarabe Oshiafi
As Edo and Ondo governorship elections draw nearer, the Independent National Electoral Commission I (NEC) has announced it’s preparedness to give orientation to accredited local and foreign observer groups.
In a news release titled “accreditation of observers for the Edo and Ondo states governorship elections” the electoral umpire disclosed that 28 of the groups are “gender based” , 3 have bias for persons with disabilities while 10 “are foreign”.
The release which was signed by INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman Information and voters education committee, Sam Olumekun and made available to ExpressDay on Monday in Abuja stated in part:
“A total of 153 applications were received from interested organisations. After a review as provided by our regulations and guidelines, 134 groups (124 domestic and 10 international) met the requirements for accreditation.
“The classification of the organisations shows that 28 are gender-based, three representing Persons with Disability, eight are faith-based, 10 foreign and over 100 others working in areas relevant to the functions of INEC, most of them with previous experience of election observation.
“The next step is for the accredited organisations to upload the personal details and photographs of their field observers to our dedicated portal established for that purpose. To this end, the Commission is organising a one-day training for representatives of observer groups on Wednesday 17th July 2024 at the Commission’s Conference Room in Abuja at 10.00am. Access Code to the portal and letters of accreditation will be given to representatives of the accredited organisations at the training venue.
“Details of the one-day training as well as the comprehensive list of all the 134 accredited groups have been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for action by the concerned organisations and for public information”.
