Kimpact Development Initiatives, KDI, has presented the Election Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) report for Ekiti and Osun States ahead of the elections scheduled for June and July 2022, respectively.
While giving his opening remark at the virtual public presentation, Bukola Idowu, the Executive Director, KDI, said that the ESRA is a holistic assessment framework of the pre-election environment towards identifying early warning signals and risks to the peaceful conduct and administration of the election.
He mentioned that “KDI deployed long term observers to the states, and they have been sharing their reports. This is because we want to have an understanding of the issues on the ground to be able to mitigate any potential violence.”
Idowu also added that “credible election is a process and we believe that there are three agents involved in the process; Political parties, Citizens and Electoral bodies like the Independent National Electoral Commission and Security officers. That is why this presentation has featured these key stakeholders and to enable them to play their role adequately to ensure a peaceful election.”
Giving the outcome of the report, Oluwafemi John, Senior Programmes Officer, KDI, explained that the indicators used to conduct the assessment were; security of the environment, internal democracy within the political parties, political parties‘ preparation for the elections, Citizens’ political and electoral awareness and election management bodies’ preparations.
He explained that the key findings revealed that “Ekiti and Osun States are relatively peaceful in terms of political violence, compared to Anambra State when it was five months to the election,” adding that “interparty crisis is an issue in Osun state and somewhat in Ekiti state.”
To ensure a free, fair and credible election, the report recommended that “INEC should ensure that PVCs are distributed early enough as against the Anambra Situation where PVC distribution started a week to elections.
“INEC should ensure that logistical arrangements are perfect due to the envisaged high voter turnout. Early mobilization of security agencies to curb some of the identified security threats (early warning signals) before election day, and there should also be a collaboration between the various security agencies.
“Security Agencies should be trained on mitigating violence without violating human rights. Also, they need to be trained on how to identify vote-buying. CSOs should ensure there is a massive campaign on voters’ education and collection of PVC.”
The public presentation also featured a panel discussion with Prof Raji Abdulganiy, Resident Electoral Commissioner, Osun State and Mr Adebowale Olorunmola, Country Representative, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, as panellists.
Earlier, Lilian Mbaegbu, Programmes Officer, KDI, mentioned that the organization is focused on youth development, advancing good governance and promoting democracy.