Group Commends INEC for Peaceful Election Campaign

By Vanessa Obioha

The Values Reorientation Initiative and Advocacy group has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a peaceful election campaign in Lagos State.

In a summary of their observation report, the group said that the electoral body’s preparation and training of both the election duty staff and ad-hoc staff was very professional and organised.

“Whatever happened in the pre-election campaign to a large extent determine the outcome of the elections. From our observation in Lagos, it was peaceful. Previous elections have witnessed more violence, but this year’s has been violence-free. To a large extent we can say it measured up to international standards,” said Larry James, the executive director of the group.

“So far, we can say that the election has been peaceful and we hope it will be replicated at presidential and National Assembly election tomorrow (today).”

For the report, the group assessed the pre-election activities based on the promotion and protection of the civil and political rights of participants; deterring manipulation, fraud and exposing such problems if they occur; and facilitating the correction of errors or weak practices even while the election process is still underway.

For today’s election, the group deployed 250 observers who would keenly watch the elections in 245 wards in Lagos.

“We urge all participants in tomorrow’s (today) election to maintain the standard that characterise the pre-election activities,” James concluded.