Parties to sign peace accord for Edo election on Sept 12

On September 12, parties in the Edo election will sign a peace accord. Find out more about the upcoming event and its importance for a fair election.

On Thursday, August 29th, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu – the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) confirmed that political parties participating in Edo’s September 21 governorship election are obliged to sign a peace agreement on the same day.

During an emergency conference with the national chairmen and secretaries of all registered political parties, the INEC chairman stated that signing the peace agreement earlier will allow for monitoring of party compliance by the National Peace Committee before voting day.

Professor Yakubu expressed dissatisfaction with the behavior of political parties who neglected to follow established regulations, particularly in relation to providing information on polling and collation agents for the Edo Governorship election.

The National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Barrister Julius Abure was noticeably absent from the meeting as reported by The Nation. Rumors suggest that he was instructed to refrain from attending until a decision is made on how to resolve the leadership predicament in his party.

On Thursday 12th September, the INEC chairman announced that in collaboration with the National Peace Committee (NPC) headed by former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a peace accord signing for Edo State Governorship election will be conducted in Benin City.

The chairman for the occasion, General Abdulsalami Abubakar will be presiding over it with support from distinguished members of the Peace Committee.

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Compared to the previous peace accords that were signed just a few days before the election, it has been decided this time around to sign them earlier. This will allow for proper monitoring of compliance with all parties involved in the electoral process including INEC and security agencies by the Peace Committee prior to Election Day.

Many observers and even some of the political actors themselves have demanded that this ceremony adds further weight to the Peace Accord.

Before the Peace Accord is signed, there will be an INEC Stakeholders meeting on Wednesday 11th September 2024 in Benin City. The Chairman of INEC and Inspector-General of Police will both speak at this event as they have done before. This provides a platform for political parties, candidates, observers and media to engage with the Commission and security agencies prior to the election.”

Yakubu mentioned the nomination of polling and collation agents for the Edo State governorship election, stating that they had replaced the manual process with a digital platform in agreement with political parties.

In collaboration with stakeholders, we have also streamlined the accreditation process for observers and media organizations. Additionally, our independent effort to abandon manual recruitment of ad hoc staff has resulted in the creation of INECPRES – a digital platform that enables electronic processing across multiple portals. These initiatives have not only simplified our processes but also reduced costs for all parties involved.

After gathering information about polling and collation agents for the Edo State election, we found problems with compliance in regards to the quality of uploaded content. The images of Polling Unit, Ward and Local Government agents were particularly concerning.

Irrespective of previous occurrences, the issue at hand affects all political factions. As in past major electoral events, we provided training for officials appointed by various parties and established a Help Desk to cater to any party requiring support.

I want to stress that the manual process is a thing of the past and there will be no returning to it. The digital procedure is now fully adopted by observer groups and media organizations, so political parties should also comply without exception.

Instead of continuously complaining about not having enough accreditation tags for your agents, it is imperative that you take the necessary steps to address the issue. We will only generate tags for submissions that adhere to our regulations and guidelines.

The Commission has resolved that your agents stationed at Polling Units and Collation Centres must bear identification tags with their names and photographs, which are to be duly authorized by the Commission.

“To simplify authentication and verification of your agents at polling and collation centers, we have incorporated a QR Code into each tag. Furthermore, any issues arising from the latest uploads will be addressed during this gathering.”

Furthermore, he appealed to all involved parties to abide by the established guidelines and regulations of the Commission regarding rallies and processions. Despite being in a heated campaign period within Edo State, it is imperative that decorum and civility be maintained throughout their campaigns.

To date, none of the political parties have provided the Commission with details regarding their key campaign rallies and processions. Yet some are swift to raise concerns when such incidents happen. By submitting this information, you can facilitate smoother coordination of your campaign endeavors.

The Edo State Governorship election is only 22 days away, which equates to three weeks plus one day. Widespread campaigning is ongoing and we have already accomplished ten of the thirteen items on our Timetable and Schedule of Activities for this event.

Moreover, we have heightened our involvement with State and Local Government stakeholders beyond the required legal actions. Furthermore, continuous voter education initiatives are in progress. Security personnel training has already been completed, and efforts to distribute the outstanding non-sensitive materials for the election are being finalized.

Arrangements with the land and maritime transport unions for logistics are being finalized. The printing of triplicate copies of voters’ registers for all 4,519 Polling Units in Edo State is almost done.

The setup and arrangement of BVAS machines, which will be used on Election Day, have been finished. The production of accreditation tags for observers is underway.

Next week marks the deadline for media accreditation, with a total of 88 organizations having submitted applications to cover the upcoming election. To account for all necessary personnel – including journalists, technicians and crew members – we have received details on 698 individuals thus far. Plans are also in motion to commence training sessions for our varied ad-hoc staff categories very soon.

The Commission announced earlier this week that 125,928 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) representing 68.3% of new cards have been collected in Edo State at the Ward level in just five days out of a total of 184,438 PVCs from the recent Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).

Since the introduction of CVR for off-cycle elections in 2015, this is the highest rate at which PVCs are being collected during Bayelsa and Kogi State governorship elections.

The Commission acknowledges the contribution of political parties and other concerned individuals in encouraging new voters to obtain their PVCs. Recently, on Wednesday 28th August 2024, we resumed collecting PVCs at our 18 Local Government offices in Edo State until Sunday September 8th. We call upon stakeholders once again for a commensurate mobilization effort to attain an even greater collection rate.”

He revealed that several other events are planned and included the information that “The Commission will conduct a trial run of BVAS deployment for election voter accreditation, as well as result upload to INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on Tuesday, September 10th, 2024.”

The one-day exercise will take place from 8:30am to 2:30pm and have designated twelve polling units in six LGAs across the three Senatorial Districts of the State as centers. Detailed information regarding their locations has been uploaded onto our website.