The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) reported that it has sent approximately 359 election observers to the 36 States of the Federation in advance of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
At their Political Party Watch Command Center in Abuja, the NILDS and Westminster Foundation for Democracy briefed reporters on the revelation on Friday.
The elections would be seen live, according to Prof. Adewale Aderemi, Director, Democracy and Governance, who is also the Director-General of NILDS.
“We’ll deploy nine observers each to every state and the Federal Capital Territory. We will be observing the participation of youths, women and children with disabilities across the country,” he noted
Speaking on strengthening political parties, he said: “We want to know what they’ve been given and how political parties have carried them along. We need to understand that. We will also have a situation room where we’ll be monitoring the elections. We will be watching out for inclusive participation of some Nigerians.
“The preliminary findings of our research had informed us to develop the activities to focus on so we can know the level of participation. We will look at inclusive activities of the 18 political parties. We want to have a report that’s factual and speaks to the issues.
“Our drive is to strengthen the political parties’ system. In doing this, we will have a fighting chance of sustaining our democracy. We want to seek the inclusive participation of our political parties. This is part of a larger project we’re working on.”
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