“The high rate of cases of arson at the INEC offices in Ogun and Osun States which has led to the loss of 904 election boxes and 65,699 uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have become an alarming issue with the critical infrastructure of INEC increasingly being targeted, recent attacks appear like a systematic assault meant to cripple INEC operations ahead of the 2023 general election”
By Fadlillah Abdallah
ASHENEWS reports that the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has described as ‘supreme’ the rate of political intolerance exhibited by state governments and irate citizens as the 2023 general elections approaches.
The chairman of the group, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani in a statement made available to ASHENEWS on Thursday, lamented the vandalisation of offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and attack on its personnel in some states.
Rafsanjani also chided the refusal by some state governments to allow opposition political parties to use public facilities for their campaigns and rallies.
“The high rate of cases of arson at the INEC offices in Ogun and Osun States which has led to the loss of 904 election boxes and 65,699 uncollected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) have become an alarming issue with the critical infrastructure of INEC increasingly being targeted, recent attacks appear like a systematic assault meant to cripple INEC operations ahead of the 2023 general election.
“We have also witnessed scenarios where some state governments prevent the opposition from using public facilities for their campaigns which have been readily available to them.
“It is on the backdrop that TMG is partnering the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE), an initiative funded by USAID to support citizens’ engagement in the 2023 general elections, the partnership is aimed at improving citizen’s participation and stakeholders’ engagement towards a violent-free, participatory and credible 2023 election,” the statement reads.
According to TMG, the organisation will deploy its members across the country to ensure a nationwide outreach of the objectives of the collaboration.
“The collaboration among the two foremost organisations will adopt robust engagements with stakeholders while also initiating a system to monitor and publicize the campaign promises of the major political parties before and after the elections.
“Also the partnership will also be seeking to promote an issue-based electoral campaign and to observe and report electoral conduct to reflect the yearnings of citizens in the elections,” the statement noted, adding that part of what the partnership intends to address include issues such as election violence and thuggery, vote-buying and voters harassment.
TMG also observed other issues to include intimidation by security and government officials as well as e-electoral process anomaly in the elections.
“In achieving the set objectives, TMG will be adopting the following approaches, documenting and publicising election promises of candidates and political parties, training the trainers workshop for TMG members across the country in Abuja, and supporting electoral debates for select parties at the state and national levels,” the statement added.
