He National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) has deployed 369 observers to monitor compliance with the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities and other vulnerable groups in the electoral process.
Observers must observe the participation of women, youth and people with disabilities (PWD) in the electoral process.
The institute announced this on Friday during a press conference in Abuja.
NILDS also announced its Political Party Watch Project, a non-partisan investigative paper on electoral processes in Nigeria and inclusion.
Speaking on behalf of the NILDS, Director of Democracy and Governance Adewale Aderemi said that the NILDS has set up a command center to coordinate the activities of the coordinators.
“Regarding the 2023 general election, NILDS will deploy 369 observers across the country, about nine in each state and three in each senatorial district in all 36 states and then we have about 50 in the FCT.
“We will also house a command center (situation room) together with the WFD and other stakeholders where we will take real-time field reports from these 369 observers in the field.
“We will analyze them through the lens of inclusion; we are going to analyze the participation of women, youth and people with disabilities (PWD) in the process.
“We will also be looking at the general conduct of the election and will be live on all NILDS and WFD social media,” he said.
Speaking about the project, Mr. Aderemi said that the Political Party Watch Project is a collaboration between the institution and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
He regretted the exclusion of people with disabilities, youth and women from the electoral process. He said that the institute will produce a report after the elections.
Mr. Aderemi noted that political parties need to improve the problems of marginalization of these groups, adding that donor groups are already fighting fatigue.
He affirmed that poor leadership recruitment and patronage are some of the factors that affect inclusion.
“There has been a lot of intervention in building the capacity of our political parties since 1999, donors are not only willing to put their money into political parties anymore, but we are not giving up.
“What we want to do with the Political Party Watch Project, of which monitoring the inclusive practice of political parties is a part, is to address the challenges that we have identified in the political party system in Nigeria,” he said.
In his presentation, WFD Country Representative Adebowale Olorunmola said that inclusion is critical to assessing political development in any democracy.
“The health of a democracy is not determined solely by the successful conduct of elections but by the inclusive participation of citizens in the democratic process.
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“This is regardless of gender, age, religion, ethnicity, location, or ability or disability status. This is a key determinant of the health of a democracy, and therefore when we have a good percentage of the population participating in the process, we can confidently say that our democracy is healthy.
“As we have it, our democracy is a work in progress because, over the years, Nigeria has continued to be on the wrong side of the data on inclusive participation and inclusion,” he said.
Presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for Saturday across the country.