Osun 2022: CSOs Vow to Collaborate to Avert Repeat of 2018 Challenges
- Yiaga Africa has lauded residents of Osun state for their participation in the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR)
- Residents of Osun State have been urged to channel the same energy towards trooping out in their numbers to vote at the gubernatorial polls
- The organization also assured electorates in the state that their vote will surely count especially with the deployment of relevant technology to monitor the process
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Osun, Osogbo - Yiaga Africa has vowed to collaborate with civil society organizations in Osun State to promote electoral transparency ahead of the Saturday, July 16 governorship election in the state.
The organization’s head of elections project Paul James said this during an engagement with civil society organisations tagged ‘Parallel Vote Tabulation’ academy on Wednesday, May 19 in Osogbo, Osun State.
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The event according to him is aimed to reflect on the preparation of election stakeholders and also coordinate with the leadership of CSOs in the state to ensure a more transparent, free, and credible process.
James said this became necessary given the challenges experienced during the 2018 governorship elections in the state where the first round of voting did not produce a clear winner while the citizen observers were prevented from accessing the polling units during the second round of elections.
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He said:
“We want to see how we can navigate through all those challenges we saw in the previous election and how we can ensure a hitch-free electoral process in Osun State."
He called on civil society organizations in the state to intensify voter education activities in a bid to improve citizens’ participation in the electoral process saying voter education has not been at the tempo that is expected.
However, he lauded residents of Osun for participating in the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) while encouraging them to ensure it translates into votes on election day.
He said:
“We want to get commitment from CSOs in the state to ensure voter education messages trickle down to all their network and constituents to get on board every citizen in the state to ensure effective participation in the election.”
Paul lamented the increase in the spate of voter inducement saying it is unfortunate that vote-buying has become an indelible mark in our elections.
He said:
“It is happening because politicians are becoming lazy and looking for an easy route rather than conducting voter education. It is also happening because our elections are becoming better.”
Your votes count, Yiaga to Osun residents
He said technology and other innovations have made it more difficult to engage in electoral malpractice, adding that politicians have realized that they have to go back to the people.
He concluded that Yiaga Africa’s Watching the Vote will be using an advanced election day observation methodology called the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) to observe the Osun election.
Paul said the PVT is an Election Day observation methodology that leverages statistics and technology for the observation of the process of voting and counting and tallying of results.
2023: There is no alternative to participation, get your PVCs, CSOs tells Nigerian youths
Also, Yiaga Africa in a similar collaboration with OXFAM Nigeria under the #RunToWinNG project staged a convergence of youths to sensitize them on the values of electoral and political participation.
At the event, youths were task to use their potentials to their gains in participating in the electoral process.
According to Yiaga, the whole idea of the #RunToWin festival was to provide support to younger people to contest and win election and also inspire younger people to register and vote at the forthcoming election.
2023: Yiaga Africa, UNDP synergise ahead of polls, targets 29m young voters
Meanwhile, a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Yiaga Africa has been brokered to ensure a smooth-running election at the 2023 polls.
The alliance of the two organizations was made official on Friday, May 13 at the United Nation's House in Abuja during the launch of the #SixtyPercentOfUs project.
Nigerian youths have been implored to take advantage of their numbers and decide the outcome of the 2023 polls.
Source: Legit.ng
