The national chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) Prof Mahmood Yakubu has called on the United Nations to come to his Commission assistance as the country prepares for fresh general elections next year. Professor Yakubu made the appeal on Monday while playing host to the United Nations Need Assessment Mission on the 2019 general election. The INEC chairman specifically listed his area of need to include, capacity building for staff, voters’ education and sensitization and the electoral legal framework. INEC also demanded the support of the world body on “capacity building for political parties, electoral conflict mitigation, inclusiveness, particularly of women, youths and persons withdisabilities.”Yakubu noted that over the years, the UN has been providing critical support to INEC in its onerous task to introduce and sustain reforms of the electoral system in Nigeria. He also informed the visiting UN officials that there are 119,973 polling units, 8,809 electoral wards and 1,553 constituencies for which elections would be conducted in 2019.

Source: Nigerian Tribune January 22, 2018 20:10 UTC