The European Union’s (EU) interaction with state’s Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) in Nigeria is to improve electoral process at the grassroots, says its official.
Mr Hamza Fassi-Fihri, Project Coordinator, European Centre for Electoral Support, stated this during an interview with journalists on the sidelines of a training programme for Civil Society Organisations in Gombe on Saturday.
Fassi-Fihri said the need to build citizen’s trust in electoral processes, results in vibrant democracy, while entrenching transparency in governance at the local government levels in Nigeria was key to the ECES.
According to him, the essence of ECES’s engagement with state’s electoral bodies is to promote democracy and good governance through technical assistance and guidance.
He said that aside the training for SIECs and other stakeholders, there would be further engagements to bring all the SIECs together to draw common lessons to improve local government areas elections in future.
He stated that the EU had a development aid programme worldwide, discussed with countries and in Nigeria.
“it’s a bilateral agreement between the Federal Government and the European Commission.
“Both partners decided to implement what we call the EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria project so the training for SIECs is part of the bilateral agreement.
“For the EU, it is important that these kinds of programmes are agreed upon with the beneficiary country and together , they decide the area on which they need to lay emphasis,’’ he said.
According to Fassi-Fihri, electoral assistance, democracy and governance in general are topics that are important in many countries including the EU because of the many gains it gives to citizens.
He added that the training for Gombe state Independent Electoral Commission officials (GOSIEC) and other stakeholders which had taken over four days was to ensure transparency in the Dec. 19, local government area election in the state.
“We are here to provide training ahead of the forthcoming local government area election, our objective is to see that SIECs partner CSOs, women organisations to improve elections at the grassroots,” he said.
He commended GOSIEC for inviting ECES to give such training to stakeholders in the state as a tool to improve transparency in the electoral processes processes ahead of the forthcoming poll. (NAN)
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