The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies has submitted the 2019 National Assembly and Presidential Election Observation report to the Independent National Electoral Commission, thus making it the 54th such reports to be received by the electoral body.
Presenting the two-volume report to the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, represented by the INEC Commissioner and Chairperson, Election and Party Monitoring Committee of INEC, Prof. Antonia Simbine, the commission commended NILDS while stating its confidence in the Institute’s capacity.
Simbine, however expressed dismay that, in spite of the fact that report writing is a major criterion for INEC accreditation of Observer Groups, INEC had only received reports from only 54 election Observer groups.
She noted, “A total of 120 Observer groups were accredited to observe the 2019 National Assembly and Presidential Elections across the 36 states, plus FCT, this is made up of 34 International Observer groups.
“Three months after the elections, only 54 Election Observer Groups have so far, submitted reports to INEC. We take Observer Reports very seriously, as recommendations of Observer Groups would greatly help to improve the electoral system. While warning that INEC may not give accreditation for subsequent elections to groups that fail to submit reports, she assured that NILDS partnership in the forthcoming Kogi and Bayelsa elections would be greatly appreciated.
The Director General of NILDS Prof. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman, in his remarks, observed that INEC, being an independent agency, and NILDS, a non-partisan agency of democracy, had a joint responsibility to ensure the improvement of, not only the electoral process but also develop and enhance the processes of governance and democratic culture of Nigerians.
He said: “I believe that the findings, observations and recommendations as contained in the report, would be useful for future improvements on the electoral process, deepening of Nigeria’s democracy and beneficial to Nigeria and the international communities.”
NILDS on 23rd February, 2019, deployed a total of 104 observers, comprising, 3 Professors, 20 academics and 19 PhD holders to participate as NILDS Institutional Election Observation Group, in the 6 geo-political zones across the country for the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
The exercise according to NILDS took place in 25 states across the country and they included: Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba, Bauchi, Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, Plateau, Kwara, Benue, Niger, Kogi, Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Imo and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
This is the 2nd time the institute is participating in the Observation of General Elections in Nigeria.
