Osun Electoral Stakeholders forum was held on Monday 21st March, 2022 at Olusegun Agbage Media center, Osogbo to discuss the state of election and democracy for the forthcoming election in Osun State in July 16, 2022.
The event was organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission Osogbo Osun State.
The Forum was attended by different Personalities and Dignitries and in attendance includes, The Ata-oja of Osogbo, INEC officials, The State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corp, Dignitries and Representative of different political parties in Osun State.
The Hon. Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC Osun State, Prof. Abdulganiyu Olayinka Raji at the Stakeholders Meeting made a presentation on the Devolution of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) Exercise to Registration Areas (RAs/Wards) which aimed purposely to brief the critical stakeholders in the electoral process in the State on the activities of the Commission so far which are geared towards undertaking a free, fair, credible, transparent, all-inclusive and conclusive governorship election come Saturday, 16th July, 2022.
In his presentation he said “There is no gain saying the fact that an election that would be successful, generally acceptable and meet the international best practices, the foundation of such an election begins with a credible registered Voters; which makes equal opportunity available for all eligible populace to register and be part of the process.
Also, the hallmark of democracy is people participation in the processes that see to the emergence of their leaders who occupy various political offices on their behalf.”
Speaking on the activities and effort of INEC, he added that the Commission Headquarters, INEC Abuja has graciously approved that the current ongoing CVR at the State Office and at the INEC LGA Offices be devolved and taken to the three hundred and thirty-two(332) Registration Areas/Electoral Wards in the State, commencing from Thursday, 24th and Wednesday, 30th March, 2022 between the hours of 9:00am and 3:00pm.
This decision of the Commission is aimed at ensuring that all eligible voters who have not or could not perform their civic duty of registering as voters due to distance, are provided with the opportunity to do so with ease.
Individuals are then urged and appealed to assist the Commission by further sensitizing and mobilizing members of the public to take this advantage to register.
The REC Osun State also talked about the various activities that the Commission had undertaken towards ensuring a successful conduct of the 2022 Governorship Election in Osun State. He added that Conversion of Voting Points to Polling Units to decongest existing PUs and to ease voting processes on Election Day.
Seven Hundred and Fifty-Three (753) VPs were successfully converted to substantive Polling Units. The main purpose was to ensure that un-served and under-served voting public due to new settlements, relocations and attainment of 18 years of age by young Nigerians are taken care of.
However, despite this effort of the Commission, members of the public have not taken advantage of this opportunity by either registering in these new Polling Units or transferring their voting rights to the PUs nearest to their residence. The implication of this is that the existing Polling Units would still be congested leading to long queue of voters on the election day.
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He also added talked on misinformation on the revalidation of 2011 Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) which went viral recently on social media and the national dailies. The Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) collected between 2011 and 2018 are still valid, useable and can work perfectly with the new accreditation device introduced by the Commission (Bimodal Voter Authentication System- BVAS) which would be deployed for accreditation during Osun election.
However, it is important to stress that those that have registered between these periods are advised to review and update their PVCs.
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