TAF Africa says it has trained and deployed 150 election observers across Ekiti State ahead of the June 20 governorship election to monitor the participation of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and promote inclusive electoral processes.
The organisation said the initiative, supported by the European Union under the Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) programme, is aimed at ensuring that persons with disabilities are not excluded from exercising their voting rights.
Speaking during the training of observers in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, the Programme Manager of TAF Africa, Dr. Andrew Adaju, said the exercise was designed to assess compliance with disability-inclusive electoral guidelines and ensure equal access to voting for all eligible citizens.
Adaju said persons with disabilities remained an important part of society and should not be denied participation in elections because of physical challenges. He added that TAF Africa was collaborating with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that electoral processes were accessible and inclusive.
According to him, the observers will be deployed to selected polling units across the 16 local government areas of the state, particularly areas with significant populations of registered voters with disabilities.
He explained that the observers would monitor accessibility of polling units, availability of priority voting arrangements and implementation of measures designed to support voters with disabilities during the election.
The programme manager also disclosed that the organisation had introduced a digital reporting platform known as the TAF Disability Hub App to facilitate real-time reporting from the field.
He described the platform as the organisation’s “third eye”, noting that only trained observers with the requisite technical skills would be involved in the election monitoring exercise.
Also speaking, the Assistant Programme Manager of TAF Africa, Mr. George Dominic Agway, said the organisation was shifting focus from advocacy to accountability by assessing the impact of previous engagements with INEC on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in elections.
Agway said the deployment strategy was informed by INEC data on registered voters with disabilities, adding that polling units were selected based on the number and presence of PWD voters to ensure efficient use of resources.
He noted that the organisation was also encouraging persons with disabilities to participate directly in election observation activities, adding that about 25 PWDs were currently involved in the exercise.
According to him, TAF Africa hopes to increase the number of PWD election observers in future electoral exercises in line with its principle of “Nothing about us without us.”
He called for greater representation and participation of persons with disabilities in all aspects of Nigeria’s democratic process.
(NAN)
