Ahead of the 2019 general elections, a university don, Prof. Shola Omotota, has called for synergy among stakeholders involved in the electoral processes at various levels in the country.
Omotota, who is the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State, made the call during the recent presentation of findings and pilot test of the harmonised Electoral Violence Mitigation and Advocacy workshop conducted by the CLEEN Foundation in Ikeja, Lagos.
He said that at this point in time in the nation’s political journey when there was relative tension and hate speeches seemed to be spreading, it was imperative for the Independent National Electoral Commission, the political parties, politicians, security agencies, the mass media and members of the civil society organisations to work together in order to ensure a transparent, credible and violence-free
elections.
“In the absence of adequate election security back-up by political education and sensitisation of citizens on the need to eschew violence before, during and after the elections, it could lead to democratic functions of the elections being compromised,” he
said.
The don further explained that before the Ekiti governorship election was conducted, despite the reality that the state was militarised with about 30,000 police officers and other security agents on ground, a study conducted by CLEEN officials in all the 16 local government areas of the state revealed that most of the people interviewed agreed that the election could be
violence-free.
Earlier in his welcome address at the workshop, the Executive Director of the CLEEN Foundation, Dr. Benson Olugbuo, said the foundation in 2016, in partnership with the Electoral Institute of INEC and support from the UK Department for International Development, developed
EVMAT.
The objective, according to him, was to harmonise and standardise the methodology of carrying out electoral risk assessment by stakeholders desiring to assess the election environment for possible outbreak of
violence.
In a related development, the CLEEN executive director said since vote buying had started playing a significant role in our political system, questions could be framed in EVMAT to captures
votes.
In attendance at the workshop were members of the civil society organisations, journalists, INEC officials
and others.
