Politics
The European Union Election Observation Mission in Nigeria 2019 has urged politicians to be conscious of their utterances as the general elections approached.
The Chief Observer of the mission, Maria Arena, made the call while fielding questions at a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
She added that the mission would monitor developments such as vote buying during the elections.
“As politicians we really have to be conscious of what we say because we have to trust and give trust to the institution with whom we are going to work with. This is important. There is a limit to what we can do.
On vote buying, she said that the mission would observe what happens on the field, saying “we already have people on the field and they will be observing the situation.’’
Arena added that the mission was not in the country to interfere with the Nigeria electoral processes but to monitor the compliance of the election with national and international laws which Nigeria had signed to.
`It is important to understand that Nigeria election is election for Nigerian people and they are managed by Nigeria institutions.
“What we do is observing if all these are done in line with national and international practice and make our observation reports.’’
Arena said that EU Election Observation mission was in Nigeria for the sixth time, adding that democracy for EU was something important, not only in Nigeria but across the globe.
“We are doing this observation mission not only in Nigeria, we have a lot of observation missions in Africa, Asia, Latin America because we have values and we want to share these values.
“We are also here because we were invited by Nigeria authority and we are proud to be invited by Nigerian authority for the sixth times. ‘’
Arena also disclosed that the mission would also monitor the use of the media including how the social media was used during the poll.
On whether the mission had it concerns about insecurity in deploying members of its team, Arena said that the security of its members was important.
“We work with Nigeria authority to guarantee the security of observers, even in the North East,’’ Arena said.
The Deputy Chief Observer, Hannah Roberts, said that members of the EU 40 long term observer would monitor election in different locations including the North East.
Roberts explained that EU mission had strict methodology being used for elections monitoring across the globe. (NAN)
– Jan. 22, 2019 @ 06:05 GMT |
Tags: EU urges politicians to be wary of utterances
