As part of preparations for the forthcoming August 15 Osun governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has charged its staff to perform optimally throughout the electoral cycle.
The Osun INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, gave this charge while speaking at the commencement of a two-day capacity-building workshop for Electoral Officers and Assistant Electoral Officers in Osun State on Tuesday.
Babalola said the exercise was designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills required to discharge their responsibilities effectively before, during and after elections.
According to Babalola, “The expected outcome of the workshop is to ensure and build the capacity of Electoral Officers and Assistant Electoral Officers ahead of the election. The commission expects them to perform effectively before, during and after the polls.”
She explained that participants would be trained on pre-election activities, including the recruitment of ad hoc staff and logistics management.
“We are also training them on recruitment and the use of INEC processes for the recruitment of ad hoc staff, as well as logistics, which has to do with the distribution of personnel and materials for the election,” she stated.
The Osun INEC boss said election management would also feature prominently in the training programme, with emphasis on result management and strategies for addressing challenges that may arise during the electoral process.
“We are also training them on election management. We are going to go into a lot of detail about result management and addressing challenges,” Babalola said.
She disclosed that the workshop would cover communication management during elections, as well as the monitoring of electoral activities to ensure the smooth conduct of the polls.
Sessions on technology and the use of various technological tools in elections have also been included in the programme.
Babalola described the workshop as an in-house exercise ahead of a broader technical training planned by the commission, saying it would provide participants with sufficient grounding in election administration before the commencement of the technical sessions.
“So these are all the areas and, at the end of it, we are going to do a technical session because this workshop is like an in-house workshop ahead of the training session that the Commission is planning, so that by the time we have our technical training, they would have enough knowledge of election administration,” she said.
She expressed confidence that the participants would apply the knowledge acquired during the workshop in the discharge of their duties.
“I also expect them to carry out their duties the way they should be carried out before, during and after the election. We expect them to know what they are doing and perform very well,” Babalola added.
Participants at the workshop include Heads of Departments, Electoral Officers, Assistant Electoral Officers and Heads of Units.
