Postmortem on emerging issues around Saturday September 21st governorship election in Edo State, by Yiaga Africa, stirred citizens engagement and debate towards practical solutions that drive public policy reforms and implementation during Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Media partners’ meeting held on Thursday October 10th 2024 in Benin City.
TheNewspad reports that 22 per cent turnout of voters who exercise their civic rights in the gubernatorial election, which was lower than the 27 per cent turn out of voters observed in 2020 poll and the need for redemption, were part of the talking points among Stakeholders.
They said low turn out experience in the election, was largely attributed to lack of confidence, opaque system of collation of results by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), poor weather condition and vote buying by some politicians and their privies, impacted on the just concluded election.
While dwelling on key lessons learnt, Stakeholders, also urged INEC to review the election, which Yiaga Africa, insisted failed integrity test, and accordingly push for improvement in shaping future elections during the meeting where Yiaga Africa’s Elections Programme Manager, Paul James made a presentation on the NGO’s findings and conclusions about the 2024 governorship poll.
Yiaga Africa’s Report on alleged interference in past elections that dampen hope of some voters, resulting in voter apathy and logistics challenges identified by the citizens led-civic Advocacy Group, in addition to enactments of legal framework also featured in the conversation.
Media officer, Yiaga Africa, Jennifer Dafwat, tasked Media practitioners and CSOs in the State to show commitment sustain and balance out conversations at the meeting, which featured panelists session at the meeting that was moderated by Safiya Bichi, head of knowledge Management and learning, Yiaga Africa.
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