The Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Mallam Auwal Musa Rafsanjani has called on citizens of Edo State to vote candidates of their choice, adding that election is not war or a do-or-die affairs but a It is simply a civic matter.
Rafsanjani told the media in Abuja on Tuesday that “INEC staff and other electoral officials must conduct and hold themselves to the highest order and Logistic preparation must be top-notch to eliminate scepticism about the credibility of the election”.
According to him, political parties should play by the rules of the game and shun violence including inciting statements and utterances capable of leading to violence. He added that this is critical as TMG would continue to monitor the activities of political parties and their supporters now, during and after the election.
He also advised that the Police, other security agencies, law enforcement agencies should not stand aloof while unruly people commit crimes or take laws into their hands before, during and after the elections. At the same time, he said that the security agents must desist from being used as enablers of malpractices and mayhem during the election.
He maintained that faith-based organisations, civil society organisations, and traditional and religious leaders should foster peace in their relationships with candidates and political parties towards the 21 September elections in the state.
Rafsanjani stressed that “candidates are encouraged to speak to the issues, convey their messages to the citizens and supporters focusing on their manifesto without resorting to personal attack”. He said that, by now, all the candidates are expected to have documented their manifestos to serve as reference material to the public which the citizen can use as bases to track their performance in office.
TMG called on the citizens of the state to go out in their large numbers to exercise their franchise to cast their votes for the candidates of their choice. Nonetheless, it said that citizens should desist from aiding and abetting malpractices,as well as shun vote trading and keep an eagle eye on their votes.
Rafsanjani urged Edo people to participate fully in the governorship election to cast their votes for their preferred parties and candidates. He further said: “Citizens must conduct themselves peacefully and serve as agents of protection of the credibility of the election by ensuring observance of the process. Voters should also desist and reject any attempt to buy their votes as that has not been seen to bring about good governance anywhere in Nigeria.
“The political parties are the bedrock for political aspirations and participation in democracies like Nigeria’s. It is expected that political parties would present the first opportunity for free, fair, credible and participatory election to provide the platform for presenting credible candidates for election.
“TMG has observed instances of verbal attack, abuse and hate speech including online posts and comments which are capable of escalating into physical violence and attacks on innocent citizens of Edo State.
“TMG notes that some of these attacks have been carried out by highly placed politicians in Edo State, with the disposition of such well-placed persons in the political landscape capable of triggering violence in the state”.
He also said that that attention should be directed to ensure that there are no ballot-box snatching on election day. He frowned at the arrest, intimidation, and isolation of members of the opponent political party by the Security Agencies.
He identified economic hardship in the country and the tendency for vote trading. “Although there were report of vote trading with money and other materials things during the 2023 general elections, we are concerned that the current economic situations in the country might push citizens to sell their votes to the highest bidder”.
He called on the Economic Finance and Crime Commission to deploy adequate monitors/personnel ahead and during the election to deter, arrest and prosecute perpetuators of vote buying and selling. TMG urged the voters to desist from selling their votes as it only enables to entrenchment of bad leaders who have no desire to better the welfare of the people but only to amass wealth from public funds.
TMG said it has recruited and trained election day observers to be deployed across all the local government areas of the states. The observers will be retrained close to the election day to and will be deployed to observe and report through a digital on-the-spot reporting tool which has been developed by TMG’s ICT team.
TMG said it will establish a Central Data Centre located in Abuja, managed by trained data clerks to interface with field observers, collate and analyse reports from the field.
