By Emeka Nze
Abuja
The United Nations has pledged support to the Independent National Electoral commission, (INEC) on building of technological capacity and sustain same for improved conduct of elections in the country.
Its Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, made the pledge yesterday in Abuja while on a courtesy visit on INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, where he emphasised the need for the commission to embrace technology which had been accepted the world over as a measure for the conduct of free and fair elections.
Represented by the special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Mr. Mohammed IBN Chambers, the UN scribe acknowledged the efforts by the Commission to improve elections in the country.
He said the Commission’s current leadership should be taken as a model for nations under the West African sub-region.
He commended INEC for announcing election dates for the general elections way ahead of the scheduled year which is 2019 as well as the number of registered voters in the ongoing Civic Voters Registration (CVR) exercise.
He noted that the inclusion of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country cannot be over emphasised.
On Ekiti and Osun governorship elections coming up next year, he said they would be another trial match for the commission, given that their outcome would be a reflection of the general elections in 2019.
Yakubu assured the UN visiting team of the Commission’s commitment to sustaining democracy in the country in particular and the region at large.
He pledged the election monitoring body’s resolve to partner with a regional body, ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) to improving on elections adding that it is better and easier to monitor elections than deploy the region’s military force, ECOMOG, when elections were deemed to be flawed.