Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Yakubu Mahmood, has assured Nigerians that only their votes in the 2019 general elections and beyond.
The INEC Chairman gave the assurance today at the 15th edition of the Daily Trust Dialogue, with the theme: “Nigeria and the challenges of 2019”.
Represented by National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Prince Solomon Soyebi, the INEC Chairman noted that there had been a lot of improvement in the electoral process since the current Commission came on board.
He said the Commission was not unmindful of the enormous responsibility of conducting elections in a democracy only second largest to that of the United States in terms registered voters.
The INEC Chairman disclosed that as at last week, the Commission had 74 million registered voters hinting that by projection, the figure is expected to hit between 80- 85 million by 2019 due to the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
Responding to a concern raised by one of the speakers, Kate Henshaw (a Nollywood star and politician) in her presentation about youth participation in the electoral process, the INEC Chairman said “women, youth, People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs), and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), have always been at the fulcrum of the Commissions plans.” He assured that INEC would continue to engage all stakeholders to ensure an all-inclusive process.
Professor Yakubu used the opportunity to stress the Commission’s resolve to adhere strictly to the timelines provided in the recently released Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2019 general elections.
He appreciated the contribution of the organizers of the Dialogue, Daily Trust, to the deepening of democracy through balance and fair reportage of the Commission’s policies, activities and other electoral related issues.
Professor Yakubu implored other media organisations to emulate Daily Trust by verifying facts first to help reduce the huge amount of rumours in the electoral space being circulated especially in the social media age.