2019 Poll: Only 62 out of 2,970 women won elective positions — INEC

Only 62 women won elective position in the 2019 general elections says Deputy Director & Head of Gender Division, Independent National and Electoral commission, INEC, Blessing Obidegwu. Obidegwu made the remark, Thursday, in Abuja while stating the objectives of a 2-day workshop meant to review the 2019 general elections from a gender perspective. The workshop […]

Only 62 women won elective position in the 2019 general elections says Deputy Director & Head of Gender Division, Independent National and Electoral commission, INEC, Blessing Obidegwu.

Obidegwu made the remark, Thursday, in Abuja while stating the objectives of a 2-day workshop meant to review the 2019 general elections from a gender perspective. The workshop was supported by the European Centre for Electoral Support, ECES.

She said “The 2019 general election recorded the lowest number of women elected to public offices despite interventions by the commission and other stakeholders”.

She explained that “As at the time of the 2019 general elections, the total number of women candidates for the election stood at 2,970 across all political parties that fielded candidates but only 62 women eventually won elections.”

She added that at all levels of governance the representation of women in Nigeria falls short of the gender policy benchmark of 35 per cent.

Obidegwu stated that the workshop provides opportunity for interactions with the INEC gender desk officers across the states to review progress emanating from their experiences of the 2019 general elections so as to “assess the work, plan, successes and challenges ” and “develop a work plan that will take us to 2021”.

The representative of ECES, Senior Project Manager, Sylvestre Somo , said that the effective and proportionate participation of women in the electoral process constitutes a cardinal principle of “a virile and inclusive democracy”.

He said, “It is not just enough for women to be able to vote but must also be able to contest for elections in an electoral environment devoid of violence, unfair practices and negative prejudices”.

On his part, the INEC Director for Voters Education, Publicity, Gender and CSO’s, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, said that the commission as an election monitoring body will within its assigned mandate as administrator of the electoral process continue to promote gender equality in the political space so as to address the poor participation of women in elections and the drop in the number of women who occupy elective positions.

The INEC’s National Commissioner & Chairman, Outreach and Partnership committee, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola says that the commission is organising reviews to get detailed and comprehensive assessment of the 2019 General election from different perspective based on personal views and experiences.

He added that the activities of the Gender desk officers during the 2019 general elections need to be assessed to ascertain their relevance in the states.