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 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.

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