Monday, January 26, 2015

European Union Rejects Monitoring Election In N/ East

The European Union International Election Observation Mission has rejected monitoring some states in Nigeria because of the challenges facing the country.
Gen. Buhari
Gen. Buhari
The election observers reportedly refused to monitor the February general elections in the north-eastern parts of the country as a result of the insecurity posed by members of the radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram.

ThisDay reports that this was made known by the Head of the EU delegation to Nigeria, Mr. Santiago Ayxela, immediately after having a meeting with the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) in Abuja.
Ayxela, who hinted that the commission intends to deploy 90,000 election observers to Nigeria, said it is possible that his delegation will also meet with the President Goodluck Jonathan this week.
He assured that though the Mission will not risk sending observers to the north-east, it hopes to observe all the happenings leading to the February elections, including the build-up campaigns, the election day events and post-election occurrences.
“We can’t be in the north-east for security reasons. But we have people deployed very close to the north-east and we have contacts there and so, try to get better information as much as we can have on the north-east. But the present situation does not allow us to go to the north-east,” Ayxela said.
The Head of the EU delegation to Nigeria said the observer team has been involved in the monitoring of political party primaries and national conventions since November.
“First, I want to thank General Buhari for the opportunity to have this interview here. The European Election Mission is a big mission. It is a mission that started in November and will be in place till mid-April. What happened on the Election Day is not only the problem. It is what happened during and within a space of time, how the party primaries were done, how the law has been complied with, the propaganda, activities of the media and any possible claims after the elections. That is our role and not just to follow up the days of election,” Ayxela said.
It would be recalled that the European Union deployed some of its personnel on Election Observation Mission for the forthcoming presidential, National Assembly, governorship as well as state Houses of Assembly elections slated for February 14 and 28, 2015.

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