United Nations holds meeting with civil society ahead of 2023 general elections in Nigeria
The United Nations (UN) has convened a meeting to listen to and discuss civil society perspectives on the ongoing general election process, which is part of its commitment to supporting peaceful, credible, free and fair general elections in Nigeria.
Penpushing reports that a statement made available by National Information Officer, United Nations (UN) Information Centre (UNIC), Dr Oluseyi Soremekun said the meeting, attended by representatives of some twenty civil society organisations, discussed both positive developments and potential threats to peaceful and credible elections.
The statement added that the meeting also addressed issues such as vote buying, insecurity across the country, mobile phone usage in polling booths, slow Permanent Voter Cards(PVC) collection and election materials distribution in some parts of the country, Naira redesign and swap, as well as violent attacks on women engaging in politics.
Penpushing further reports that Schmale described that the United Nations (UN) system through the UNDP, was providing technical support to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and called on civil society organisations to acknowledge positive progress
The statement said Schmale pointed out that at the technical level, the world body sees Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) making progress in preparing and running elections, noting that United Nations (UN) agencies such as UNWomen and UNFPA had done a lot in the past and towards the coming elections.
Penpushing also reports that he explained that the organisation and other stakeholders need to do much more impactful work ahead of the next elections in 2027, while the Civil Society representatives noted that some progress had been made around electoral reforms including the deployment of BVAS.
The civil society organization called for further needed improvements such as Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) clarifying to the voting public what 2/3 of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory means before the elections, to eliminate possible controversies about whether it is 24 or 25 states.
The United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator expressed that there had been strong statements of intolerance and hate speech in public space, which led the world body to publicly call on all actors to refrain from such statements.
Penpushing reports that he pointed to several examples of the United Nations (UN) making its voice heard such as Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohamed recently calling on the judiciary to adjudicate possible legal disputes in an impartial and neutral manner.
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