The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday called on Nigerians to vote correctly on election days in the 2023 general election.
VANTAGE NEWS reports that the electoral umpire also warned that inappropriate marking of boxes or spaces provided on the ballot papers by voters may affect the overall outcome of the elections.
This is why the commission’s Assistant Director for Planning and Programming in the Department of Voter Education, Dorathy Inyang advised voters to follow the procedure for voting their preferred candidate or party correctly or have such votes invalidated.
Inyang raised the concern during the final stage of the Voter Education Innovative Dragons’ Den Competition organised by Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening and International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Abuja for Nigerian civil society organisations to pitch innovative proposals for effective and inclusive voter education campaigns in the build-up to the 2023 general elections.
While stating that INEC was working hard in educating and enlightening the electorates on how to effectively participate in the electoral process, she stressed the need for Nigerians to pay attention to manifestos of political parties and candidates in order to make the right choices.
She said, “We have released the guidelines for the elections; even the list of candidates for the Presidential and National Assembly elections have also been released. As you are aware, campaign starts Wednesday, September 28, and we are telling Nigerians to pay attention to the manifestoes of political parties and what each candidate has to offer so that they can make their informed choices.
“Considering the size of the nation, all hands, therefore, should be on deck to provide voter education. Top on the lists of those who are to be involved in these are registered civil society organisations who have passions in civic responsibilities to educate the citizens to be alive to their responsibilities to issues like voting”.
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