ABUJA – The Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, said the commission would not condone the marginalisation of women in the nation’s electoral process.
This is contained in the commission’s daily bulletin issued on Monday in Abuja.
According to the bulletin, Jega made the statement when he received the Minister of Women Affairs and Youth Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, in Abuja.
He said that INEC believed strongly that it had to factor the protection and the defence of women into whatever the commission was doing.
“There is no way INEC will condone exclusion of women in the electoral process or allow anybody to deny women registration or deny them collection of their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).
“No country has developed without promoting and providing opportunities for women to contribute their own quota to nation building. This is very important,” Jega said.
He said INEC was committed to ensuring that political parties complied with their constitutions.
Jega said that political parties’ constitutions contained very little provision for promoting, protecting and encouraging women’s participation in the political process.
“Our mandate is to ensure that parties comply with the constitution, the Electoral Act and their own constitutions,” he said.
Jega said that INEC had insisted that nursing mothers, the elderly, and people with disabilities be given priority when participating at the polls.
He said INEC was working closely with the civil society organisations and would work with the Ministry of Women Affairs and Youth Development.
Jega said that the partnership would enable INEC to identify the most important priorities in its gender policy for implementation.
He said it had become important to engage and empower women, to strengthen the Nigerian political and electoral process.
Earlier, the minister called on INEC to ensure that women were not schemed out, intimidated or disadvantaged by parties in the political process.
Maina urged INEC to encourage political parties to take conscious steps in implementing the affirmative action regarding women’s participation as prescribed in the National Gender Policy.
The minister also called on INEC to ensure that the interests of people living with disabilities were considered in the commission’s electoral activities.
“The leadership of INEC should also impose strict sanction on parties that do not observe their parties’ rules in choosing candidates,’’ Maina said. (NAN)