THE Independent National Electoral Commission reported on Tuesday that vulnerable groups in Nigeria, such as Persons Living With Disabilities, made up more than 70% of those who registered during the recently finished Continuous Voter Registration exercise for the 2023 elections.
The commission, therefore, called on political parties, as key drivers of the democratic process and governance in Nigeria, to take the lead in encouraging the full participation of the PWDs as citizens with equal rights in all party processes, procedures and activities.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Outreach and Partnership Committee, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, stated these in his keynote address titled, ‘The role of political parties in engendering inclusive democratic governance in Nigeria’, organised by a human rights organisation under the aegis of Inclusive Friends Association with support from Participate Today and National Endowment for Democracy.
During the event, the Executive Director of the IFA, Grace Jerry, outlined what political parties should do to ensure inclusion in the 2023 electioneering process.
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She said, “All political parties must work to ensure that the code of conduct for political parties should provide very clear measures to administratively review political party provisions for all PWDs in various political parties; therefore, a clear policy direction on inclusion is required from political parties.
