Yiaga Africa has raised concerns about the possibility of insecurity hampering Nigeria’s 2023 elections.
Raising its concerns in a report titled Will Election Security and Executive Impunity Shape Electoral Outcomes in 2023, the civil society organisation (CSO) urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to urgently convene an emergency session of the Inter-Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to address security concerns.
It also called on INEC to leverage available partnerships and invest in popularising innovation in the electoral process; like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the INEC results portal, the new polling units in the state and the plan for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) voting.
According to the election monitoring group, the criticality of the 2023 elections requires a comprehensive and independent observation of the electoral process from the pre-election phase into the election day process and post-election.
It noted that despite deliberate efforts by key stakeholders to ensure smooth processes, election periods are often not without foundational issues which tend to undermine its
credibility.
It highlighted issues of security of election personnel, materials and citizens and issues bordering on logistics, especially for deploying poll officials and materials in hard-to-reach communities due to difficult and inaccessible terrain.
Yiaga Africa further identified potential triggers or indicators of election violence in a bid to alert relevant stakeholders of the same.
The findings of the report revealed incidents of violence in various local government areas across the country and also tracked potential early warning signs of violence.
‘While the concerns are widespread, the most concerning are the government restrictions
reported from the southeast and south-south geo-political zones’, the report read.
The organisation called on security agencies to begin early planning and coordination to meet the security challenges across the country because security is indispensable in free, fair and credible elections.
It also recommended swift investigation of all instances of politically motivated violence, and for security agencies to coordinate with other stakeholders in investigating any breaches of the electoral code of conduct.
Photo source: GPA Photo Archive
