Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has commended the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) for its tremendous effort towards promotion of transparency and citizens’ participation through election observation and recommendations towards a better electoral system in Nigeria.

Prof. Yakubu revealed that he is impressed with what YIAGA has done so far while also lauding the mode of communication which he describes as simple but effective especially using infographics.

The INEC Chairman spoke during a courtesy visit to YIAGA office on Wednesday in Abuja. He reiterated that the commission is ready for the 2019 elections, saying that INEC’s strategic and electoral project plan has been validated. While reaffirming the commission’s commitment towards working with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) for the improved electoral system, Prof Yakubu said the commission is ready to listen to observations, comments and criticism which will be taken into consideration.

After a brief display of how the #WatchingTheVote team observed the just concluded CVR in Anambra and how it intends to go about its Pre-election and Election Observation of the upcoming November gubernatorial elections using statistics and information Technology, Prof. Yakubu, said: “I know YIAGA is doing great but with this display, I must say I am overwhelmed and very happy.”

On the decentralisation of CVR to the ward level in Anambra State, the Chairman said INEC hopes to achieve the feat across the country and hopefully the 2019 elections will be even better than the acclaimed best elections of 2015. “We have registered 1.8 million Nigerians in the first quarter of the CVR exercise and registered about half a million in the second quarter of the CVR,” he said.

Prof. Yakubu also made case for people with disability as he said the commission will make effort to develop software on the new Direct Data Capturing Machine which will be able to capture people with disability.