For the purpose of ensuring proper monitoring of processes leading to the conduct of the November 2012 General Elections, the Department for International Development (DFID) has doled out a whooping two million Pound Sterling to the National Election Watch (NEW) as support to its Civil Society Engagement in Elections and Electoral Processes (CSEEP) exercise.
NEW has however noted the money will not do to for the full implementation of the CSEEP project because the amount it has received will only do for fifty percent implementation of the said project.
According to NEW, their projected implementation cost of the CSEEP project was pegged at three million pound sterling.
A press release issued by NEW yesterday noted that it has commenced observation of the Biometric Voter Registration across the country with its presence in only 50% of the total 2, 998 voter registration centers across the country. The NEW release asserts that it will not be able to monitor the rest 50% registration centers on account of “insufficient funds provided by the British foreign aid agency.”
NEW however indicates that it has trained and deployed a team of NEW and IRN observers totaling 738 across the country and they include; NEW Regional and District Coordinators and their Secretaries and a team of IRN executives who served as trainers.
NEW further disclosed in the press release, that it designed a code of conduct on impartiality and non-partisanship for its observers to guide them. Each center will be observed by a team of two observers who will complete one observation checklist per team of two NEW/IRN on each day they observe. Incident reporting forms have been issued to the observers to use them when necessary.
By Poindexter Sama
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