The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has predicted that based on information available to it more young persons would be actively participating in the forth coming February 2023 general election than ever experienced in the country.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman (IVEC) Barr. Festus Okoye made the revelation during the ongoing Strategic Consultantive Meeting with Media Executives in Lagos State.
According to him, ” the projection is that young persons would be participating massively in the general elections of 2023.
He said, “We have since found out, the younger ones among us, source their information mostly from new media or what we all now refer to as social or digital media.”
“As most of us here are well aware, there are far reaching innovations in the electoral act and these new innovations needs to be understood and clearly intelligently and wisely disseminated in the secular media and languages our diverse people understand.”
“In the same vein, a large section of our populace depend on the good old media notably the radio, television and newspaper as their main sources of information especially about the activities of the commission. Therefore preparatory to the 2023 general election, INEC is poised to reach all eligible voters and other key stakeholders using all these forms of mass communication and even more.”
The commissioner noted however that irrespective of the medium that INEC and it’s partners decide to employ at any particular time, the most important thing is to send out the right and accurate messages at the right time.
“So one of our appeals to the executive is to make out time from their busy schedules to be conversant with the laid down rules and regulations which govern the electoral process especially the new electoral act and the role and centrality of the permanent voter cards and bimodal accreditation system as well as the INEC result viewing portal and understand how results are transmitted from polling units to the INEC portal.
The deployment of the Bivas for voters authentication and accreditation is a requirement of the electoral act 2022, he maintained.
