Chairman, Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said that the governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states would be well conducted and credible.
Jega said this at the Quarterly Meeting with political parties in Abuja yesterday.
He said the commission would do everything possible to ensure that the elections are free, fair, peaceful and credible, adding that the Commission had distributed the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and also conducted registration for those who had become 18 years since the last registration in the two states.
Jega said INEC had also conducted registration for those whose details had not been sufficiently captured in the electronic register.
He said: “Although doing these were not without some challenges, overall the two exercises were remarkable improvement over previous efforts.
“The lessons we have learnt from these will be factored into our preparations for the conduct of the PVCs and the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), nationwide.”
He, however, called on all the political parties and other stakeholders to continue to cooperate with INEC to enable it improve on the electoral process, and urged political parties and politicians to enter into the electoral arena with full respect for the Code of Conduct which political parties had signed.
In his remarks, Dr Yinusa Tanko, Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), commended INEC on its efforts at ensuring that the governorship elections in the two states were credible.
He said IPAC had made some observations on the PVCs and CVR in Ekiti and Osun.
According to him, INEC needs to do more in order to sensitise voters on the PVCs and CVR.
He said proper training should be given to the ad hoc staff ahead of the governorship elections in the two states.
