A National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mallam Mohammed Kudu Haruna, has said that as part of efforts at improving and easing access for persons living with disabilities (PWDs) and other marginalised groups will participate in the off-season elections.
Haruna said the commission has provided Braille ballots for visually impaired voters, made available magnifying glasses for people with Albinism and introduced enlarged posters for voters with hearing impairment.
He said: “We have gone further to integrate into the voting procedure a process that accords priority voting for PWDs and other vulnerable people like the elderly, pregnant and nursing mothers.”
Haruna, who is also a member of the commission’s Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC) made the disclosure in the course of an engagement with select media executives in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
He also informed the media executives that the commission had embarked on a comprehensive post-election review of the general elections and has learnt from the recommendations while it seeks to consolidate its gains.
“It has become the policy of the Commission to embark on post-election review after the conduct of the general election with different stakeholders in the electoral process including the Media. This exercise was held in August in Lagos and I am sure somebody from Imo participated in that review meeting.
“The essence of such reviews is to receive inputs and suggestions from you the practitioners on what we did well, where to improve on if necessary, so as to enhance the electoral process.
“I am glad that all Post 2023 General Election Review engagements at the state level, in Abuja and Lagos were successful and a handful of suggestions as to how we can make elections better were harvested and implementation of some have already commenced.”
The National Commissioner stressed that the commission was fully prepared and ready to conduct a credible election on November 11. “All non-sensitive materials have been delivered to the three states in required quantities and good quality. The production of sensitive materials has been completed and ready for delivery to the three states.”
